Real estate investment firm 60 Guilders is set to push into the outer boroughs industrial market as demand from the e-commerce sector surges.
Bastien Broda, co-founder and managing partner, said the firm is looking in neighborhoods such as Williamsburg and Sunset Park in Brooklyn, Maspeth and Long Island City in Queens, and Mott Haven in the Bronx.
“It could be anything from basic storage to a photo or art studio,” said Broda, whose company has been focused on Manhattan office, retail and residential until now.
With rising demand for ecommerce and fulfillment centers and a dwindling supply of space, particularly close to city centers, industrial real estate has been on upward trend.
In Northern New Jersey — the top industrial market in the country thanks to its proximity to New York — vacancy rates have fallen from 12 percent a decade ago to well below two percent in recent months.
Prime sites are in such demand in the Garden State that some developers are remediating contaminated brownfields to create usable space.
While not as dilapidated as contaminated sites in Jersey, unimproved sites in the outer boroughs of New York City are also looking attractive to some real estate firms.
Last October, 60 Guilders partnered with ASB Real Estate Investments to acquire two warehouses totaling 209,000 s/fin Sunset Park, Brooklyn, for $47 million.
“The acquisition represents an excellent, cash-flowing infill investment, which will benefit from decreasing supply and increasing demand for well-located, accessible industrial buildings within New York City,” said ASB senior vice president Brodie Ruland at the time.
“For a long-term hold, the area may offer future opportunity for conversion to office or multifamily uses.”
On Monday, Broda told Real Estate Weekly, “We have a robust pipeline in this strategy, Weʼre actively negotiating to buy a good amount of these types of properties.”
— With reporting by Kyle Campbell
