Anonymous buyer pays $8M for 119K sf dev site in Long Island City

The entity 38-17 23rd St LLC paid $8 million to Sae Kwon Kim through the entity Eastern Koex Realty Corp for the development site with 118,800 square feet buildable at 38-17 23rd Street and 38-18 24th Street in Long Island City, Queens.
Marcus & Millichap marketing materials, from an expired listing, suggest the buyer could build a hotel or office building on the site.
The deal closed on September 8, 2023 and was recorded on October 3, 2023. The two properties have 19,955 square feet of built space and 98,790 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 118,800 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $400 and the price per buildable square foot is $67 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatory for Sae Kwon Kim was Sae Kwon Kim. The signatory for the buyer was Michael D. Shanabrook. The contract date was March 2, 2023.

The buyer entity has a principal address at a garage building in Hudson Yards owned by Rockrose Development, but a source said that firm did not buy the building. The signatory is an attorney with a LinkedIn page which says he founded and manages a family office.

Prior sales and revenue

The seller Sae Kwon Kim had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The industrial building in Long Island City has 19,955 square feet of built space and 98,790 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 118,800 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 250 feet and is 85 feet deep with a total lot size of 18,750 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-3 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.1 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received five DOB violations and $16,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Long Island City, The bulk, or 32 percent of the 60.1 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space. In sales, Long Island City has the 9th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Long Island City is the 4th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 8.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 14 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were two pre-foreclosure suit filed among other industrial buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 38-17 23rd Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the six commercial properties representing 71,603 square feet of the 101,358 square feet. The two identified owners are Surjeet Kaur and Ciampa Organization.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 37,305 square feet. It is a 96-unit, 37,305 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Surjeet Kaur and filed by Surjeet Kaur with plans filed May 18, 2018 and permitted April 19, 2019.

The majority, or 56 percent of the 101,358 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 44 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link