Citi Bike Operator Motivate Takes 45K SF in Long Island City
By Celia Young May 26, 2023 1:40 pm
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On the 10th anniversary of the city’s Citi Bike program, its operator plans to dock in Long Island City, Queens.
Motivate inked a six-year deal for 49,000 square feet in the two-story warehouse at 42-11 9th Street for bike storage, according to landlord Terreno Realty and a source with knowledge of the deal.
While Terreno and the source did not disclose the asking rents, the average cost of industrial space in Long Island City is roughly $31.44 per square foot, according to LoopNet.
The bike-share operator will move into the building in September, consolidating a handful of other storage facilities in New York City, according to the source and the Terreno announcement. Motivate’s deal also includes a 4,500-square-foot parking lot.
It was not immediately clear what other locations Motivate would ditch thanks to the new deal.
Motivate takes the space from Titan Contracting, which owned the property until it sold it to Terreno for $23 million in March, Commercial Observer reported. The warehouse is in a mostly industrial area two blocks from the East River, just south of the approach ramp to the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge.
The deal comes as Motivate marks its decadelong bike-share operation in the city. Motivate, which also runs similar services around the country, launched Citi Bike in New York with a fleet of 6,000 bicycles in 2013. It has since grown to just under 30,000 bikes available for rent around the boroughs (minus Staten Island) and in Hoboken and Jersey City, The New York Times reported.
JLL (JLL)’s Daniel Morici and Kevin Duffy represented the tenant in the lease while Adam Citron, also of JLL, handled it for the landlord.
Morici declined to comment. Spokespeople for Motivate and Terreno did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.
