Update 10/5/17 – The Equator self-storage conversion project in Staten Island was listed among September’s “top 10 biggest real estate projects coming to NYC” by “The Real Deal” magazine, which provides news on the New York City real estate market. The Veterans Road storage project was named No. 4 behind a 37-story commercial tower comprising 385,000 square feet in Brooklyn, a 473,000-square-foot apartment complex in the Bronx, and a 143,000-square-foot hotel in Manhattan.
Self-storage architect Frank G. Relf has been tapped to design the facility.
8/14/17 – Equator Capital Management LLC, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based private-equity group, is developing a self-storage facility in Staten Island, N.Y. The company signed a 99-year, $70 million ground lease to build a 136,000-square-foot building on a 2-acre property at 2601 Veterans Road W. The site is owned by A. Tranchina Inc., a supplier of construction materials, according to the source.
The lease pricing is the net present value of annual rent payments for the entire term of the lease, according to the broker, Eugene Rivera, director of the commercial real estate division for Pure Properties. The firm is the U.S. brokerage arm for Dixon Advisory, an Australian-based investment-management firm.
Equator developed a storage facility in Long Island City, N.Y., in 2015. The property at 29-01 Review Ave. comprises 143,700 buildable square feet. The site once housed a 24,363-square-foot, single-story warehouse, but was purchased vacant for an undisclosed amount.
The same year, Equator formed a joint partnership with NitNeil Partners, an Atlanta-based real estate development and investment firm, to develop another storage facility in Durham, N.C. The facility is managed by self-storage real estate investment trust Extra Space Storage Inc. and branded under its name.
Founded by CEO Mehul B. Patel in 2008, Equator was formed to pursue business investments that can hold economic value even during market fluctuations, according to the company website. The firm invests in a range of real estate classes, acquiring, developing and repositioning properties in various industries, including self-storage. It works with institutional partners, private investors and joint-venture partners.
