By Sarina Trangle
Years after the FDNY vacated a 100,000-square-foot lot in Maspeth, the city successfully unloaded the land for $13.4 million last month.
Vichai Charalaivan, the registered agent with the new property owner 143 Grand Street LLC, said he planed to lease the 55-30 58th St. facility to a restaurant equipment manufacturing company that would move in within the next few months.
Property records show 143 Grand Street LLC purchased the property for $13,393,250 April 7.
No construction plans or applications had been filed with the city Department of Buildings as of Wednesday. Last year, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services filed a Uniform Land Use Review application to sell the property. The ULURP notes that the 100,000-square-foot lot had a single-story building used by the city Fire Department’s fleet maintenance team and Emergency Medical Service’s pharmacy and medical supply unit divisions.
The city signed off on the FDNY’s maintenance unit moving out of the building and into 30-30 Review Ave. in Long Island City in 2000, according to the ULURP. The remaining EMS divisions were slated to relocate within a few months.
Community Board 2 unanimously voted to back the city’s plan March 7, 2013. Former Borough President Helen Marshall also recommended the move.
According to ULURP documents, Citywide Administrative Services believed consolidating the emergency responder facilities and selling the land “will create an important economic development opportunity within the Maspeth Industrial Business Zone and generate needed tax revenues for the city.”
The Maspeth IBZ was established in 2006 as a way for the city to protect a manufacturing district by pledging not to alter the zoning and using tax incentives to lure in new businesses.
Jean Tanler, the Maspeth Industrial Business Association coordinator, said she had not spoken with the new owner yet.
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle at 718-260-4546 or by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com.
