Customs and Border Protection Leases Office from Minskoff

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Queens has signed a 139,000 square foot lease at Edward J. Minskoff Equities’ One Aviation Plaza in Jamaica, CBRE announced.

The lease for the space at 159-30 Rockaway Boulevard was transacted through the General Services Administration, the federal department tasked with commercial real estate dealings.

CBP will be relocating from Building 77 at the John. F Kennedy International Airport. The agency will occupy the first three floors and part of the fourth at One Aviation Plaza, sharing the property with the Federal Aviation Administration.

The lease length and asking rent were not disclosed.

A CBRE team including Vincent LaManna and Richard Freel represented the tenant, while JLL’s Joe Brennan and Chloe Edwards represented the landlord, in addition to in-house representation from Minskoff’s Jeffrey Sussman.

In a statement, LaManna said the location was logical for CBP due to accessibility to the airport and “high-level security infrastructure.”

Things may change as the incoming administration takes charge, but the GSA’s maneuvers in recent years pointed more towards office space reduction. A year ago, the GSA was planning to put the Liberty Loan Building in Washington, D.C. through the Real Property Disposition program after the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service decided to relocate to the U.S. Mint.

In 2023, the federal government released a plan to dispose of 23 properties nationwide spanning 3.5 million square feet, a response to the dwindling need for office space in the pandemic’s aftermath.

In November, Minskoff landed a loan modification on 1166 Sixth Avenue, seeing maturity dates extended and interest rates tweaked on three Wells Fargo loans totaling $235 million. The securitized debt on the Midtown Manhattan office tower hit special servicing over the summer.