By Hellen Zaboulani
A bit of good news emanated from New York City’s outer boroughs industrial real estate sector. While the second quarter’s property market was ripe with gloomy news, the industrial market held its own, despite the pandemic. Cushman & Wakefield statistics show that overall vacancy rates actually fell in comparison to last year’s in three of the four outer boroughs in the second quarter. Also, average asking rents rose in all four outer boroughs. As reported by Crain’s NY, the report shows the outer boroughs saw roughly 1.3 million square feet worth of industrial leases in 2020 so far.
The only one of the four borough that did not see a fall in vacancy rates for industrial properties was the Bronx, where vacancy was up to 7.5 percent compared to 5.9 percent in the second quarter last year. By contrast, in Brooklyn, the vacancy rate declined from 5 percent to 4.9 percent. The other boroughs experienced more significant declines, with Queens vacancy dropping from 6.1 percent to 4.2 percent, and Staten boasting a decline from10.3 percent to 2.4 percent.
The Bronx also experienced the biggest jump in average asking rents year over year— up to $20.89 in Q2 this year in comparison to $16.62 in the same period last year. Average asking rents went up in Brooklyn from $20.13 to $22.46; in Queens from $19.28 to $20.59; and in Staten Island from $13.19 to $13.69.
Industrial leasing activity was heaviest in Queens, with approximately 798,000 square feet leased thus yet in 2020. Brooklyn leased 292,000 square feet of industrial space, Bronx activity reached 283,000 square feet, and Staten Island leased 5,000 square feet.
The Big Apple’s commercial and residential real estate were hard hit in light of Covid-19, but the industrial sector was spared. Crain’s explained the good news explaining that because consumers are still shopping online to meet their needs, ecommerce companies still need warehouses to ship out of and to house their inventory. Amazon was responsible for two of the hefty leasing deals this year in the outer boroughs. As per Cushman’s report, the ecommerce giant took over 300,000 square feet at 66-26 Metropolitan Avenue in Queens, as well as 205,409 square feet at 1055 Bronx River Avenue in The Bronx. City Harvest, the charitable food pantry, also accounted for a considerable portion of the activity, signing a new lease for a 146,015 square-foot t warehouse at 150 52nd St. in Brooklyn.
