Amazon Leases 300K SF at Rentar Plaza in Queens
Amazon inked a 10-year deal for 300,000 square feet at Rentar Plaza in the Middle Village section of Queens
By Rebecca Baird-Remba February 26, 2020 4:50 pm
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Amazon (AMZN) has leased yet another warehouse in New York City.
The e-commerce monolith has inked a 10-year deal for 300,000 square feet at Rentar Plaza in the Middle Village section of Queens, mortgage data firm Trepp noted in its newsletter. Amazon will take over 109,000 square feet of storage currently occupied by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, plus another 190,000 square feet of space vacated by Kmart and Toys “R” Us in the property at 66-26 Metropolitan Avenue.
The City of New York, the complex’s largest tenant, also extended its 516,115-square-foot lease from an early 2021 expiration date through 2033. The city uses the space as a central storehouse for bulk supplies and archives, according to a spokesman for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which manages the warehouse.
The servicer on the $132 million loan backed by Rentar Plaza flagged the leases, which were first reported by The Real Deal.
The servicer’s commentary on the loan, which had been watchlisted amid an occupancy decline to 88%, noted that the deals effectively bring the property to fully occupied, according to Trepp. The building’s debt is split between three commercial mortgage-backed securities deals that were marketed between 2016 and 2017.
The 1.6-million-square-foot retail, office and industrial complex had some major vacancies last year after Toys “R” Us and Kmart abandoned their massive stores in its three-story mall. Kmart had 145,000 square feet, and Toys ‘R’ Us occupied 45,000 square feet. The landlord even sought approval from the local community board to add more loading docks to the development, in an effort to lease up the former big-box spaces. Locals drafted a petition for Target to take over the empty storefronts, but the retailer didn’t bite.
Rentar Plaza also has a number of other tenants, including a Funtopia USA amusement park for children, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Raymour & Flanigan and a training academy for the city Department of Correction.
Garden City, N.Y.-based Rentar Development Corp. constructed the building in 1972 and still owns it today.
