PIMCO Provides $94M Construction Loan on Queens Logistics Project
By Andrew Coen March 30, 2023 2:42 pm
reprints
Wildflower has secured $94 million of construction financing for its planned industrial development adjacent to The New York Times printing facility in College Point, Queens.
PIMCO supplied the floating-rate loan on the College Point Logistics Center that Wildflower is developing with its joint-venture partner Drake Real Estate Partners, PincusCo first reported.
Walker & Dunlop arranged the transaction, which also included a $49 million equity placement. The team was led by Jonathan Schwartz, Aaron Appel, Adam Schwartz, Keith Kurland and Ari Hirt.
The debt package was secured by Wildflower nearly a year after the developer announced the warehouse facility at 28-02 Whitestone Expressway on an underutilized 4-acre site the Times has occupied since the early 1990s, as CO previously reported.
“We are thrilled to build on such an iconic site,” Gordon told CO. “It is an ideal location with access to major New York City highways in an area not heavily trafficked with logistics sites.”
Wildflower has been leasing the property and is set to take over ownership in 2025, according to Gordon. The planned facility will offer 36-foot ceiling clear heights and the ability to support floor loads of 800 pounds per square foot. It will include a warehouse and structured parking facility with 81,000 rentable square feet of industrial space.
The College Point project is slated for completion in the second quarter of 2024 and will mark Wildflower’s eighth industrial project in Queens. It is also developing the 762,000-square-foot Wildflower Studios with partner Robert De Niro and architect Bjarke Ingels. The studios are expected to debut next year.
PIMCO declined to comment.
Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com
