Carlyle Group grows storage portfolio with $68M buy in Maspeth, Washington Heights

Carlyle Group paid $68 million to Storage Deluxe for storage locations at 74-16 Grand Avenue in Maspeth, Queens, and a smaller one at 302 Dyckman Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan, in two transactions. The properties are operated by CubeSmart, a publicly traded self-storage REIT.
Prior to this, Carlyle Group in April 2024 paid the joint venture Equity Resource Investments and SNL Storage $110.4 million for four New York City storage locations in Richmond Hill, Brownsville, Greenwood Heights and East Flatbush.
Carlyle Group financed the purchase with a $51 million loan from PGIM Real Estate, an affiliate of Prudential Financial.

In the larger, Carlyle Group through the entity SS NYC Grand Ave, L.L.C. paid $51 million to Storage Deluxe through the entity 74-16 Grand Avenue LLC for the industrial building (E7) at 74-16 Grand Avenue in Maspeth, Queens. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on November 22, 2024 and was recorded on November 29, 2024. The property has 140,171 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $363 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatory for Storage Deluxe was Steven A. Novenstein. The signatory for Carlyle Group was Wonjoong Kim. The contract date was October 24, 2024.

In the second, Carlyle Group through the entity SS NYC Dyckman St, L.L.C. paid $17 million to Storage Deluxe through the entity 308 Dyckman Street LLC for the industrial building (E7) at 302 Dyckman Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing. The deal closed on November 22, 2024 and was recorded on November 29, 2024. The property has 40,495 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $419 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.) The seller bought the property on June 15, 2021, for $15.2 million. The signatory for Storage Deluxe was Steven A. Novenstein. The signatory for Carlyle Group was Wonjoong Kim. The contract date was October 24, 2024.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Carlyle Group purchased 125 properties in 120 transactions for a total of $1.5 billion and sold three properties in two transactions for a total of $53.2 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Storage Deluxe had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The industrial building in Maspeth has 140,171 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 115 feet and is 308 feet deep with a total lot size of 35,000 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-1 which allows for up to 1 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.9 million. The most recent loan totaled $34 million and was provided by PNC Bank on July 11, 2019.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on October 31, 2024. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Maspeth, The majority, or 73 percent of the 22.3 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space. In sales, Maspeth has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $261.1 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 7th highest in Queens. For development, Maspeth has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 442,368 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were 14 pre-foreclosure suit filed among other industrial buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the six commercial properties representing 298,508 square feet of the 302,828 square feet. The largest owner is Neil Simon, followed by Uovo and then Verizon.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 52 percent of the 302,828 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 47 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Storage Deluxe owned at least five commercial properties in New York City with 304,831 square feet and a city-determined market value of $22.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $56.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as Truist Bank, PNC Bank, and Bank of Montreal respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 79 percent of the 304,831 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with P6 properties next occupying 18 percent of the space. The bulk, or 80 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 20 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Carlyle Group owned at least 314 commercial properties with 3,740 residential units in New York City with 3,887,687 square feet and a city-determined market value of $908.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $600 million in debt, with top three lenders as Invesco, Prudential Financial, and Santander Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 39 percent of the 3,887,687 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with industrial properties next occupying 27 percent of the space. The bulk, or 46 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 33 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link