Listen to this articleAfter acquiring six industrial properties on Long Island over the last two-and-a-half years, Metropolitan Realty Associates has put the portfolio on the market, according to real estate industry sources.
In 2021, MRA, led by founder and CEO Joe Farkas, raised $50 million of equity with Angelo, Gordon & Co. for a strategic fund focused on acquiring industrial properties here. The buying spree that followed assembled a portfolio totaling more than 433,000 square feet on over 33 acres in Bay Shore, Ronkonkoma and Bayport.
The first acquisition in the portfolio was a 94,500-square-foot building on 6.2 acres at 5 Inez Drive in Bay Shore that MRA purchased for $14 million in Aug. 2021. The property is leased to fulfilment company Ruby Has.
In March 2022, MRA acquired the 128,000-square-foot building on 5.6 acres at 81 Spence St. in Bay Shore for $22.25 million. Duro Dyne, a manufacturer and global distributor of sheet metal accessories and equipment products for the HVAC industry, extended its lease for the property through May 2035.
MRA purchased two Ronkonkoma properties for $28.3 million in Nov. 2022, including the 102,000-square-foot building on 8.7 acres at 195 13th Ave. and the 33,000-square-foot building on 1.75 acres at 2175 5th Ave. Unitta Exotique Woods Corp., which does business as Lumber Plus, signed a 10-year lease for 2175 5th Ave. in January. The property at 195 13th Ave. is leased by tire supplier Max Finkelstein Inc. through next month. The company relocated to a newly built facility at 45 Oser Ave. in Hauppauge.
In February, MRA closed on its $12.6 million acquisition of a 75,000-square-foot cold storage and distribution center at 33 Rajon Road in Bayport. The former home of global baking giant Europastry USA, the building was leased to a contract bakery firm Bakery Process Solutions in March.
The Bayport deal also included a separate 3-acre parcel of land where MRA has secured approval to build a new 49,656-square-foot building, which is also part of the portfolio being offered for sale.
The MRA portfolio sale comes at a time of continued demand for Long Island industrial space, though there’s been millions of square feet of newly built warehouses and distribution facilities that have come online in the last couple of years. The overall vacancy rate for Long Island industrial property ticked up to 4 percent in the first quarter of the year, with average asking rents at $18.64 per square foot, according to a report from JLL.
The MRA portfolio is being marketed by Cushman & Wakefield’s Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group, though a C&W broker declined to comment on the assignment.
