Queens is king of outer-borough office sales in recent years

Brooklyn has long held a reputation for being the city’s top market for office property outside of Manhattan. But recent data shows that Queens scored the most deal volume over the past two and a half years.

Though the difference in total volume was small — just under $114 million — seven of the top 10 outer-borough office deals were in Queens. Hunters Point topped Downtown Brooklyn in both volume and deal count since the start of 2021.

The Real Deal searched the city’s ACRIS property transaction database for all sales of office buildings and properties with a major office component worth $1 million or more, those recorded from the start of 2021 through the second quarter of this year. TRD identified 324 transactions in the outer boroughs totalling $2.3 billion in volume.

That represents just 11 percent of the city’s total office sales volume of $21 billion for the period, but the outer boroughs still booked 45 transactions worth $10 million or more, and two deals broke nine figures.

Queens accounted for nearly 47 percent of the outer-borough total, booking over $1 billion in volume across 123 deals. Brooklyn trailed closely in volume with nearly $976 million in 217 transactions. The Bronx and Staten Island were minor players, with a combined $267 million in volume across 74 deals between them.

As for where all those deals were closing, more than 54 percent of that volume was in the top 10 neighborhoods, and half of those neighborhoods were in Queens — including four of the top five. 

Hunters Point topped the list, with $238 million in volume across nine deals, beating out Downtown Brooklyn’s $229 million in five sales. The Queens neighborhoods of Astoria, Sunnyside and Flushing rounded out the top five with volume of $188 million, $172 million and $104 million, respectively.

Queens also accounted for a disproportionate share of the top-dollar office deals outside Manhattan over the past two and a half years, boasting seven of the top 10.

The priciest sale of the period was the $166 million purchase of an office building at 36-06 34th Avenue across the street from Kaufman Astoria Studios by Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management, as part of the pair’s $600 million acquisition of the fabled studios in 2021.

In 2023, New York University paid JP Morgan Chase $122 million for 3 Metrotech Center in Brooklyn, for an expansion of its Tandon School of Engineering. 

Rounding out the top three outer-borough office deals was Longfellow Real Estate and Sculptor Real Estate’s $92.5 million purchase of 43-10 23rd Street in Hunters Point from Columbia Property Trust, with plans to renovate it into a life sciences facility.

To access the full dataset underlying the rankings as well as key contact information, check out TRD Data, The Real Deal’s new data subscription platform.