A former Queens-based clothing manufacturer is putting a 256,000-square-foot Long Island City warehouse it used to occupy on the market for the first time in nearly 40 years, sources told The Real Deal.
The three-story property at 48-49 35th Street is owned by Matsil Bros. It largely serves as a distribution facility to several office and manufacturing tenants. The largest tenant is AirSea Packing, an international shipping company which occupies about 100,000 square feet.
Prices for comparable warehouse sales in the neighborhood have ranged from $275 to $435 per square foot in the past year, a review of transactions shows. Based on those comps, the property could sell for anywhere between $70 million and $110 million.
The building is 80 percent leased. The vacant space includes a 40,000-square-foot penthouse and 14,000 square feet on the ground floor, said Kalmon Dolgin Affiliates’ [TRDataCustom] Jeffrey Unger, who is marketing the warehouse with colleague Neil Dolgin.
A representative for Matsil could not be reached for comment.
The warehouse was built in 1949 as former department store B. Altman & Company’s distribution center. Then, B. Altman sold it to now-defunct clothing retailer Robert Hall Clothes in 1967, records show. In 1978, Marty Lazarow’s Matsil Bros. purchased it as its new headquarters for garment design, manufacturing and distribution. After Matsil shuttered in the late 1980s, it leased its former space in the building to other tenants and maintained only a basement office.
Elsewhere in the neighborhood, Normandy Real Estate Partners and Keystone Equities recently went into contract to buy a 140,000-square-foot warehouse at 25-11 49th Avenue for about $285 per square foot. Metropolitan Realty Associates and TIAA paid $273 per square foot for a 326,000-square-foot warehouse called HUB LIC at 47-25 34th Street. And late last year, the Parkoff Organization bought a Kaufman Studios building at 37-11 35th Avenue for $435 per square foot.