NY Power Authority pays $206.8M to BP for power station land in Ditmars Steinway

New York Power Authority, a public benefit corporation of the State of New York, paid $206.8 million to the global energy company BP through the entity Beacon Wind Land LLC for the power generation land (U2) on 20th Avenue in Ditmars Steinway, Queens. The expected use is owner-occupied.
The deal closed on June 25, 2025 and was recorded on July 3, 2025. The property has zero square feet of built space and 1,369,714 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 1,369,714 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $150 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 January 6, 2023, for $215.5 million. The signatory for BP PLC was Amin Sewani. The signatory for New York Power Authority and State of New York was Allison Renstrom Shea. The contract date was March 24, 2025.

According to a press release from New York State, “The newly acquired property is adjacent to NYPA’s existing power assets in the Astoria Complex. The property is situated in an electrical load pocket and is zoned for utility infrastructure use, making it ideally suited for potential future energy system enhancements…. The property, which was formerly owned by NRG Energy, was sold to Equinor/BP in 2023 after NRG decided to close its in-city fossil generation units. Equinor and BP subsequently separated resulting in BP’s ownership of the property. In 2024, BP put the property up for sale and NYPA, owning the adjacent property, was the primary interested bidder. Closing on the property is expected in June 2025.” The Trump administration announced in April  it was halting the offshore wind farm development this parcel was affiliated with, but that appeared to be temporary and offshore wind farm construction would begin again, Gothamist reported in May.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer New York Power Authority had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller BP PLC had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The parcel has frontage of zero feet and is zero feet deep with a total lot size of 684,857 square feet. The zoning is M3-1 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing

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

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 Ditmars Steinway, The bulk, or 41 percent of the 11.3 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Ditmars Steinway has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $148.2 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Ditmars Steinway has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 374,734 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 11 commercial properties representing 176,076 square feet of the 204,482 square feet. The largest owner is Acquista Family, followed by Prime Group Holdings and then Gamal Rahman.
On the tax block, there were four new building construction projects totaling 101,246 square feet. The largest is a 89,447 square-foot 58 building submitted by Mat Davis with plans filed January 19, 2023 and permitted February 26, 2024. The second largest is a 10,333 square-foot storage (S-2) building submitted by Domenic Acquista with plans filed October 6, 2015 and permitted November 16, 2017.

The majority, or 99 percent of the 204,482 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 1 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that State Of New York owned at least five commercial properties with five residential units in New York City with 5,645,589 square feet and a city-determined market value of $2.1 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 72 percent of the 5,645,589 square feet of built space are P9 properties, with specialty properties next occupying 24 percent of the space. The bulk, or 72 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Bronx next at 21 percent of the space.

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