The city is looking for a new tenant to make 18 acres of land zoned for manufacturing uses at the Teleport in Bloomfield its home.
The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) will be issuing a request for proposals (RFP) for a new tenant to either buy or lease all, or a portion of, 18 acres of land in the gated Teleport development on South Avenue.
NYCEDC would like to see an industrial use that adds to the West Shore Green Zone concept.
“We will be particularly looking for uses at the site that we are calling resilient manufacturing,” said Zachary E. Smith, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the NYCEDC.
“Modular construction, flood defense system applications, and manufacturers of great energy systems are just three examples of businesses that have potential on Staten Island’s West Shore,” he added.
The RFP follows a broader Request for Expressions of Interest issued last year by the NYCEDC for the entire site, which includes 40 acres, he said.
“Site B1 at the Teleport property has an option for dedicated exclusive access to South Avenue. Its proximity to Staten Island Marine and the Global Container Terminals also make it an ideal location,” said Smith.
The 18-acre site — toured by a group of real estate professionals during a NYCEDC industrial brokers luncheon on Wednesday — is in an M1 zone, which allows for manufacturing uses.
INTEREST FROM NICOTRA
Richard and Lois Nicotra, — owners of the nearby Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn and several Class-A South Avenue office buildings in the Teleport — have expressed interest in the 18-acre parcel.
“The Corporate Park of Staten Island is the Park Avenue of the borough,” said Nicotra.
“My wife, Lois, and I have invested more than 35 years in responsibly developing the more than 1 million-square-feet of office and hospitality space, so this morning’s announcement is of interest, and we will surely be reviewing the RFP and monitoring the conversation. We can’t have a hodgepodge of development on this beautiful, unique street, but we are confident that the city shares that vision,” he added.
TELEPORT HISTORY
The Teleport was developed in the mid-1980s by the city and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to focus on technology. It offered high-speed voice, data and video services via satellite and fiber optic cable internet connectivity.
But upheaval in the telecommunication industry rendered the former state-of-the-art Teleport obsolete.
The crushing blow came in 2001 when AT&T, the Teleport’s biggest tenant, moved 4,000 employees out of two office buildings on the site, which then languished for years in large part because of the chronic lack of mass transit in the area.
In 2008, the Nicotras paid $25 million for the Teleport I and Teleport II buildings. They became part of the plan by his Nicotra Group, the borough’s largest private real estate developer, for the Corporate Park of Staten Island. The Nicotras have lured a variety of businesses to the office space at the Teleport.
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