Asef Bari pays $30M for office building in Jackson Heights

Entrepreneur Asef Bari through the entity Bari Tower LLC paid $30 million to the family of the late Joseph Bruno through the entity Bruson Building LLC for the office building (O5) at 74-09 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens.
The deal closed on January 24, 2025 and was recorded on January 31, 2025. The property has 92,914 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $322 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 Joseph Bruno was Craig. J. Bruno, Marie F. Hansen, and Joan T. Jeane. The signatory for Asef Bari was Asef Bari and Munmun Bari. The contract date was November 27, 2024.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Asef Bari had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Joseph Bruno had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 92,914-square-foot property generated revenue of $4.7 million or $50 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The office building in Jackson Heights has 92,914 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 200 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 20,000 square feet. The zoning is R7-1 which allows for up to 3.44 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $24 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 received $2,200 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on April 5, 2017. 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 Jackson Heights, the bulk, or 42 percent of the 16.4 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Jackson Heights has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $126.3 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Jackson Heights has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 374,391 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the two commercial properties representing 147,000 square feet of the 239,914 square feet. The identified owner is Fisher Associates.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 61 percent of the 239,914 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with office buildings next occupying 39 percent of the space.

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