Time Equities Bails on Bush Terminal Plans
Time Equities, the large Manhattan-based developer and landlord, has pulled out of a deal with the city to redevelop three buildings on the Sunset Park waterfront, reports The Real Deal. Last year, the Economic Development Corporation had picked Time Equities to rehab Bush Terminal Buildings B and C between 41st and 43rd Streets and continue…
Time Equities, the large Manhattan-based developer and landlord, has pulled out of a deal with the city to redevelop three buildings on the Sunset Park waterfront, reports The Real Deal. Last year, the Economic Development Corporation had picked Time Equities to rehab Bush Terminal Buildings B and C between 41st and 43rd Streets and continue operating them as industrial buildings while converting the 1,100,000-square-foot Federal Building No. 2 (at right) into a mixed-use complex with retail. Given the direction the market has taken in recent months, the news was not a huge surprise. “Their return would be less than what they thought,” said commercial broker Neil Dolgin, “and financing is very difficult.”
Time Equities Abandons Two Brooklyn Waterfront Projects [TRD]
Time Equities’ Other Big Project on Sunset Park Waterfront [Brownstoner]
Will be interesting to pick this story up again 3-5 years from now. Time Equities has risen like a phoenix from the ashes more than once. Back in the 80s they were the sponsor of the 5-story West Village walk-up where I bought my first coop. They also owned, and I believe went bankrupt over, converting Tudor City. The fire sale there in the early 90s was unbelievable: 1-bedrooms for $50k if memory serves. More recently one of their principals was behind the new luxury townhouses on State St in Brooklyn Heights/Boerum Hill.
Buying, rehabing and paying the soft costs for 10 dollar rents hard to make work, GWH. Most of the space CBRE is talking about is one story space, the kind everyone wants. Millions of sunset park upper floor space is storage, really. They can’t pay 10,12,14 bucks… New manufacturing tenants are 1000 sf… artistinal…. Very hard to make this work without free building, cheap loans and massive effort.
I’m glad that the mall-like retail portion is going away, but its a shame that we can’t rehab the buildings for industrial use.
Industrial uses provides good jobs for those with less than a college education.
Here’s an article from the Real Deal that shows industrial land is doing well despite the recession: http://ny.therealdeal.com/articles/industrial-market-embracing-real-estates-stepchild-2
According to numbers provided by CBRE, Queens and Brooklyn have a combined total of 155 million square feet of industrial space. Both have a vacancy rate of around 4 percent.