Commercial Development of the Year on Long Island
With growing online shopping and consumer demand for faster-than-ever deliveries, developer Wildflower, which is also behind its namesake movie studio backed by actor Robert De Niro, turned a former long-term airport parking lot used by John F. Kennedy International Airport into the JFK Logistics Center.
The 235,234-square-foot warehouse, built on an 11-acre site at 253-51 Rockaway Blvd., was leased to online giant Amazon as the Seattle-based e-commerce powerhouse was eyeing a last-mile delivery center near the airport.
The project received 15-year payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, incentives from the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency in southern Nassau County bordering Queens on Long Island, with Wildflower making a one-time payment of $250,000 to a local school district where the property is located.
The transaction won a 2023 CoStar Impact Award for the best commercial development of the year on Long Island as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.
About the development: JFK Logistics Center, which also counts real estate firm Amstar as an owner besides Wildflower, includes 32-foot clear heights and 24 loading access points.
What the judges said: “Multistory logistics buildings are growing in the U.S., but we trail Europe and Asia in the development of these facilities,” said Rebecca D'Eloia, senior vice president and project executive at RXR Realty. “As urban populations grow, and land is more and more scarce, such facilities become even more critical. JFK Logistics built into that space and secured a top credit tenant as a result.”
They made it happen: Adam Gordon, president and managing partner at Wildflower.