Piece of Cake Moving Scores Major Lease-to-Buy Deal at Long Island City Property
The moving company will lease about 70,000 square feet at 33-02 Skillman Avenue, with the option to buy it — and more — later
By Isabelle Durso August 7, 2024 4:51 pm
reprints
Piece of Cake Moving & Storage has scored a lease-to-buy deal at First Pioneer Properties’ 33-02 Skillman Avenue in Long Island City, Queens.
The Midtown-based moving company signed the 69,183-square-foot lease for part of the building, according to Knickerbocker Realty Group’s Vincent Lopez, who brokered the deal for Piece of Cake. Asking rent was $24 per square foot, Lopez said.
The lease is for two years, after which the company will have an option to buy the entire 104,000-square-foot property, with a likely purchase price of around $200 per square foot, Crain’s New York Business reported.
Piece of Cake is expected to pay more than $1 million per year in net rent for the property.
Known as The Rawson, the Long Island City property was converted from industrial into offices about five years ago but had trouble finding tenants to take the office space. Piece of Cake will revert it back to its original use and plans to use the building for both offices and storage, Crain’s reported.
It will take over the entire property once the other tenants’ leases expire, according to Crain’s.
ABS Real Estate Partners’ Randy Modell and Steven Hornstock brokered the deal for owner First Pioneer along with Ariel Property Advisors’ Victor Sozio and Remi Mandell. Spokespeople for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
First Pioneer dropped a total of $15 million on the office renovation and it included a new lobby, windows and HVAC system, according to the building’s website. The Rawson stands six stories tall.
This deal comes after Piece of Cake recently purchased a separate industrial property at 10-15 46th Avenue in Long Island City for $12 million, property records show. Lopez also brokered that deal for the moving company.
Industrial properties remain in far better shape than office properties overall since the pandemic, when demand for office space plummeted and demand for warehouse space skyrocketed.
The vacancy rate for outer borough industrial space during the second quarter of 2024 was 5.6 percent, according to a report from CBRE, while the vacancy rate for office space in Manhattan during the same period was 17.9 percent, according to a report from Colliers.
Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.
