Second multi-story DC to be built in New York City

There will be more than one multi-story distribution center erected along the East Coast.

A New York-based real estate partnership will build an 840,000-square-foot DC in the Bronx, one of the five boroughs of New York City. The facility will be used for last-mile fulfillment and delivery of online orders throughout Manhattan, other New York boroughs, and the suburbs of Westchester County and Long Island, N.Y.

The announcement was made on Jan. 29, shortly after the disclosure of a similar, albeit smaller, facility being erected in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, N.Y. At the time, the Brooklyn project was hailed as the first multi-story industrial facility to be built in the densely populated region, where available land is relatively scarce and costly. In New York, land is especially tight and expensive, and the distribution challenge is compounded by the widely accepted belief that most of the city's existing industrial capacity is obsolete and not suited for modern-day fulfillment and distribution needs.

The Bronx project is located at the intersection of the Cross Bronx Expressway—which is a part of Interstate 95 that runs through New York's northern environs—the Bruckner Expressway, and the Hutchinson River Parkway, all of which are heavily traveled thoroughfares. A partnership of Innovo Property Group and Square Mile Capital Management LLC, which acquired the property last September, will manage the development. Real estate and logistics services giant JLL Inc. was chosen to lease and market the project. Chicago-based JLL was also tapped to handle the same services for the Brooklyn facility.

The announcement did not mention project costs or estimated completion date. Demolition of the existing structure, which once housed the Whitestone Multiplex Cinemas, will begin this spring.

Robert Kossar, a JLL international director and head of the firm's Northeast Industrial Region, which was formed in 2017 by combining its New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania industrial brokerage operations, said the Bronx project will "lead the way for the next wave of modern last-mile distribution space in New York." About 8 million consumers live within 10 miles of the proposed facility, according to JLL.

JLL estimated that the northeast U.S. forms the nation's largest industrial market, with 1.54 billion square feet of space.