Volkswagen Signs Lease For Long Island City Flagship

A Volkswagen dealer is ready to drive into a bigger 2026, inking of a lease for a flagship location in Queens.

Teddy Volkswagen signed a lease for 67,000 square feet on 37th Street and Northern Boulevard in Long Island City, the Commercial Observer reported. The location spans five parcels: 36-45 37th Street, 47-61 37th Street, 36-61 37th Street, 37-21 Northern Boulevard and 37-15 Northern Boulevard.

The properties are owned by Vesta Industries and Vecta Industries, according to property records. The site was once a Cadillac dealership — even featured in the 1990 movie “Cadillac Man” — before recently housing the stage lighting equipment supplier arm of Kaufman Astoria Studios.

Terms of the 10-year lease — which encompasses a warehouse, mechanic shop and showroom space — were not disclosed. The average asking rent for Queens industrial space in the third quarter was $34.27 per square foot, according to CBRE.

Jaffe Realty’s Brian Jaffe represented the tenant in the deal, while Sholom & Zuckerbrot Realty’s Franklin Zuckerbrot and Joe Eliasoph represented the owner.

The Long Island City location will be Teddy Volkswagen’s second in the city, following the operation of a dealership in the Bronx. The newest location is expected to generate 100 local jobs, according to the car dealer.

The flagship is across the boulevard from the Standard Motors Product Building, involved in its own real estate transaction in recent months.

In September, Scott Rechler’s RXR sold the property at 37-18 Northern Boulevard to Jack Guttman’s Pearl Realty Management for $42 million. The sale of the 300,000-square-foot Queens office building broke down to $140 per square foot; Rechler purchased the former automotive parts manufacturing facility for $110 million in 2014.

Other notable dealership leases in the past 18 months include Ferrari signing a 10-year lease for 7,600 square feet at 425 Park Avenue in April for a showroom and private club Classic Car Club Manhattan taking 60,000 square feet for a flagship at 645 11th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen last June.

— Holden Walter-Warner