Apex, Knickpoint pay $8M to Surjeet Kaur for charter school dev site in Elmhurst

Apex Development Group and Knickpoint Ventures through the entity Kv Apex 7806 Charter LLC paid $8 million to Surjeet Kaur through the entity 78 Investors LLC for the charter school development site at 78-06 Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst, Queens. The Forte Preparatory Academy plans to occupy the building once it is constructed.
Simultaneously with the sale, the developers and Forte borrowed $32 million to construct the building.
There was a new building project through job number Q01012069 for a 49,431 square-foot school building submitted by Chris Karalis of Apex Development Group with plans filed March 15, 2024 and permitted June 12, 2024.
The land purchase closed on June 7, 2024 and was recorded on July 5, 2024.
The seller bought the property on June 15, 2023, for $6.2 million. The signatory for Surjeet Kaur was Surjeet Kaur. The signatory for Apex Development Group and Knickpoint Ventures was Andrew Esposito and Matthew Sprayregen. The contract date was January 29, 2024.  The buyers signed a contract with Forte Preparatory Academy as tenant.
Knickpoint Ventures is the company Matthew Sprayregen launched as his family sold off its large storage properties which operated for decades under the name Tuck-it-Away.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Apex Development Group had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Surjeet Kaur purchased one properties in one transactions for a total of $6.2 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 80 feet and is 123 feet deep with a total lot size of 10,329 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-2 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 2.43 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.4 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

On the lot, there are two active new building construction projects and major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million, totaling 98,767 square feet. The second largest is a new building project for a 21-unit, 49,336 square-foot R-1 building submitted by East Times Group and filed by Yan Po Zhu with plans filed March 13, 2015 and it has not been permitted yet.

The neighborhood

In Elmhurst, The bulk, or 40 percent of the 19.8 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, Elmhurst has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $190.3 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Elmhurst has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 532,021 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the five commercial properties representing 128,066 square feet of the 131,066 square feet. The largest owner is Surjeet Kaur, followed by Steven Berger and then David Levitan.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 98,767 square feet. The largest is a 49,431 square-foot 57 building submitted by Chris Karalis and filed by Chris Karalis with plans filed March 15, 2024 and permitted June 12, 2024. The second largest is a 21-unit, 49,336 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by East Times Group and filed by Yan Po Zhu with plans filed March 13, 2015 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 67 percent of the 131,066 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Surjeet Kaur owned at least six commercial properties in New York City with 207,434 square feet and a city-determined market value of $40.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $96.8 million in debt, with top three lenders as State Bank of Texas, Preferred Bank, and Axos Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 96 percent of the 207,434 square feet of built space are hotel properties, with development properties next occupying 4 percent of the space. The bulk, or 82 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Bronx next at 18 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Knickpoint Ventures owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 43,820 square feet and a city-determined market value of $3.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $5.9 million in debt, borrowed from Low Income Investment Fund. The portfolio consists of at least a single industrial property. It is located in Bronx.

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