ClosedLandlord rep
Leasing a Whole Building to the City of New York
60,000 RSF in College Point leased to DCAS for the TLC, through a public hearing and environmental review.
The space
31-89 123rd Street in College Point, Queens, is a flex building with about 40,000 RSF of office and garage space, a 20,000 RSF cellar and about 55,000 SF of outdoor parking. Origin represented the owner, 123 Plaza LLC. The tenant was the City of New York, through the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, for the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
The challenge
A City lease does not close on a handshake. It has to clear DCAS, a public hearing and a final review by the City's Law Department before the City signs. This property also sat in a State environmental file, the College Point Oil Lagoon site, so the asbestos and environmental articles were the hardest terms; they run ten pages of the executed lease. In November 2019 the City's side needed a lease signed by the owner before Thanksgiving to make the last 2019 hearing. Michael kept the owner, its counsel, CBRE and DCAS moving, pressed for updates all week and pulled the parties onto the calls that closed the open environmental points. On November 27, owner's counsel reported every issue resolved.
The result
The hearing passed in December. DCAS executed the lease on January 23, 2020, under an authorization from the Mayor, for a five year term. Michael stayed on as the owner's representative through the TLC build out and move in, and walked the agency through which services the lease put on the owner. He was named a 2020 CoStar Power Broker, Top Industrial Leasing Broker for the NYC Boroughs.
Rents and fees are kept confidential.