■REAL ESTATE Rapid co-working growth trickles down to Queens www.mainstreetradiology.com • 718.428.1500 by david dynak www.www.mainstreetradiology.of mainstreetradiology.www.mainstreetradiology. Neuroradiology Nuclear Medicine/PET Musculoskeletal Magnetic Resonance Imaging Mammography/Women's Imaging Interventional Radiology Cross Sectional/Body Imaging Neuroradiology Neuroradiology Musculoskeletal Mammography/Women's Imaging Cross Sectional/Body Imaging Downtown Flushing Office 136-25 37th Ave. Flushing, NY 11354 32nd Avenue Office 32-25 Francis Lewis Blvd. Bayside, NY 11358 Musculoskeletal Northern Blvd. Office 44-01 Francis Lewis Blvd. Bayside, NY 11361 Mammography/Women's Imaging Proud to be the Official Radiologist of The New York Cosmos Cross Sectional/Body Imaging Jackson Heights Office 72-06 Northern Blvd. Jackson Heights, NY 11372 Neuroradiology Musculoskeletal Mammography/Women's Imaging Cross Sectional/Body Imaging st the 2015 THE QUEENS QueensCourier.com Place Last October I wrote about the need that office sharing and co-working spaces were filling for small businesses and startups, and how a couple had already set up shop in western Queens. Well, in less than a year since then, the use of office sharing has grown all over the city at a rapid rate, with upstarts like COWORK|RS and the Yard opening multiple locations and the established giants like Regus and WeWork coming across the East River. There is even an online exchange called PivotDesk for available shared office space, to be rented by hour or by day, room-by-room or desk-by-desk. What was once dubbed as best suited for small business and technology or creativeminded folk, is increasingly becoming attractive to more traditional and large companies. Not so shockingly, then, it was not some tech company, or an investment bank or even ever-growing government or private university, but WeWork that has leased 549,438 total square feet in the first six months of 2015, toping all other tenants in Manhattan, according to CoStar. Post-recession and with mobile technology continually improving and more affordable than ever, majority of companies are looking to hire a workforce that is more flexible and easier to disperse geographically (i.e. tech, sales and service professionals). Office sharing is the perfect solution, of course, with short-term commitment, no up-front setup expenses and ability to grow or shrink as needed. It is now acknowledged that the one office use type across New York City occupies more space than any other bulk tenant – office share/co-working office spaces now occupy more square footage in the city than any other tenant. Not the city of New York with all of its agencies, nor NYU, nor any of area’s headquartered mammoth financial institutions occupies more office space than all the coworking as “one tenant.” It appears we may even start having some overcrowding near Queens Plaza, with Green Desk of Brooklyn coming to 34-18 Northern Blvd., not far from the pioneers here: Create NY Space and QNS Collective; and WeWork having leased 60,000 square feet at 35-37 36th St., at Studio Square. At the Falchi Building, the A-class standard in industrial-to-office conversion property, another co-working operator, named Spaceworks, took the third floor, and although it is not apparent, this is a Regus (the largest and the original office share/HQ space provider) operation, sort of their ALoft version of W Hotels - smaller, more tech, hip, and operating in new, developing markets. Amazingly, with all the Astoria/Queens Plaza and Court Square office market growth, there is still no significant good office space near the waterfront to speak of! And it won’t be easy to develop. Unlike other areas of the neighborhood, there aren’t many good-boned industrial loft properties that can be quickly vacated and totally redeveloped off Vernon Boulevard, and those lots big enough to build ground up are more likely to continue going to residential developers. But when the office development eventually does come, the restaurants along Vernon Boulevard will finally start seeing lunch business, helping them stomach the $100-plus per square foot rents that, at least for now, must be paid with mostly Friday night dinner and weekend brunch earnings. David Dynak is a real estate broker at First Pioneer Properties and an LIC resident. He’s lived in Western Queens since 1993.
LIC092015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above