Bell Realty signs $17M refi for two properties in Long Island City

The Belanich family’s Bell Realty through the entity CDI 21st Lic, LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender First National Bank of Long Island valued at $17 million for two properties including the specialty building (W1) at 21-02 44th Road in Long Island City, Queens and industrial building (G7) at 44-41 21st Street in Long Island City, Queens.
The deal closed on October 3, 2024 and was recorded on October 18, 2024. The prior lender was Santander Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $16.6 million.
The two properties have 113,000 square feet of built space and 24,892 square feet of additional air rights according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $150 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 Bell Realty was John D. Belanich. The signatory for First National Bank of Long Island was Richard O’Rourke.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 21-02 44th Road.

The property

The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-4 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $14.9 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 two DOB violations, $3,750 in ECB penalties, and $6,450 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 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Long Island City is the 7th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 9 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 21-02 44th Road, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the eight commercial properties representing 10,866 square feet of the 171,741 square feet. The two identified owners are Dennis Chengyan Wang and Yolanda Sipala.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 94,708 square feet. The largest is a 88-unit, 86,712 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Slate Property Group and filed by David Schwartz with plans filed November 19, 2014 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 12-unit, 7,996 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Hang Dong Zhang and filed by Hang Dong Zhang with plans filed May 21, 2024 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 66 percent of the 171,741 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Bell Realty owned at least six commercial properties with 131 residential units in New York City with 97,646 square feet and a city-determined market value of $8.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 60 percent of the 97,646 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 37 percent of the space. They are all located in Queens.

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