U-Haul parent company Amerco pays $6.5M for dev site in Woodside

U-Haul parent company Amerco through the entity Amerco Real Estate Company paid $6.5 million to Mega Contracting Group through the entity Astwood Realty, LLC for the industrial building (E1) at 27-07 Brooklyn Queens Expressway in Woodside, Queens. The expected use is ground up development.
The deal closed on September 16, 2024 and was recorded on September 19, 2024. The property has 6,000 square feet of built space and 11,748 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 17,800 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,087 and the price per buildable square foot is $366 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 Mega Contracting Group was Hercules Argyriou. The signatory for Amerco was Matthew F. Braccia. The contract date was November 27, 2023. U-Haul is owned by Amerco, which owns the rental company and related storage companies. U-Haul heir Mark Schoen owns about 22 percent of Amerco through Willow Grove Holdings LP. He also owns the storage company Mercury Partners. Mercury Partners owns a development site in Mott Haven.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Amerco had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Mega Contracting Group purchased four properties in two transactions for a total of $11 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The industrial building in Woodside has 6,000 square feet of built space and 11,748 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 17,800 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 75 feet and is 201 feet deep with a total lot size of 17,800 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 $1.4 million.

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 June 18, 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 Woodside, The bulk, or 27 percent of the 12.7 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space. In sales, Woodside has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $166.8 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Woodside has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 862,730 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the 26 commercial properties representing 197,465 square feet of the 868,998 square feet. The largest owner is Seth Yablans, followed by Blumenfeld Development Group and then Mayer Malbin Company.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 9,853 square feet. It is a 9,853 square-foot storage (S-2) building submitted by St. Michael’S Cemetery and filed by Dennis Werner with plans filed August 7, 2023 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 74 percent of the 868,998 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Mega Contracting Group owned at least five commercial properties in New York City with 19,455 square feet and a city-determined market value of $3.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $18.2 million in debt, borrowed from Corporation for Supportive Housing. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 71 percent of the 19,455 square feet of built space are mixed-use properties, with retail properties next occupying 29 percent of the space. They are all located in Bronx.

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