Himmel Meringoff Properties is expanding its Long Island City office portfolio.
The firm, which owns roughly 2 million square feet of commercial space in the city, acquired a six-story, 127,000-square-foot office and warehouse building at 21-07 41st Ave. for $25 million.
Long Island City, Queens, has grown in popularity as an office market in recent years and Leslie Himmel, co-managing partner at Himmel Meringoff Properties, said the building will attract tech and science tenants that she predicts will migrate to the area once the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island opens. That academic cluster, which is under construction, is just one subway stop away on the F train.
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“We really think the Cornell Tech campus will bring attention to this side of Long Island City,” Himmel said. “Cornell will be an incubator to new tenants and attract others who want to be in proximity to the campus.”
Himmel Meringoff purchased the property from Daniel Geoly, who acquired the building in the early 1980s to house his costume business. Himmel said several costume companies, which supply Broadway shows and television productions, continue to occupy space there.
“The seller wanted to find a buyer who would close quickly and with certainty but who would also take care of the existing tenants,” Himmel said. “If there is a company who has been a good tenant we’ll always find a way to try keep them.”
While most of the building is leased for several years, the firm will seek to fill an 11,000-square-foot retail vacancy on the ground floor. Although retail space around the city has struggled, Long Island City is one of the few areas that is considered short on stores in relation to its large population of workers and residents.
“It’s really underserved and we think it’s perfect for a fitness or health care tenant, a restaurant or a grocery store,” Himmel said.
The bulk of Himmel Meringoff’s portfolio is in Manhattan, but it owns a nearly 200,000-square-foot warehouse and office building at 34-02 Queens Boulevard that it purchased in 1986.
“People always ask me, ‘how did you know to buy in Long Island City in the 1980s?’,” Himmel said. “We like to buy in emerging neighborhoods that we believe have upside.”
Himmel said the company, which she operates with business partner Stephen Meringoff, expects to make several more acquisitions in the coming years. It recently raised over $500 million through refinancing and plans to use that money to grow its portfolio.
“In the next five years or so, we expect to expand our holdings from 2 million square feet to 3 million,” Himmel said.
