Bentley Zhao’s New Empire Corp. pays $3.8M for industrial in Staten Island

Bentley Zhao’s New Empire Corp. through the entity Granite Management LLC acquired an interest from Marshal Lighting Group through the entity Marshal Lighting Group, LLC valued at $3.8M for the midblock industrial building at 360 Industrial Loop in Charleston, Staten Island.
The deal closed on May 20, 2022 and was recorded on June 23, 2022. The property has 15,000 square feet of built space and 46,686 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 61,836 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $253 and the price per buildable square foot is $61 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 seller bought the property on November 19, 2008, for $900,000. We Got Lites is located at the location of the seller LLC.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer New Empire Corp. purchased five properties in two transactions for a total of $40.5 million and sold one properties in one transactions for a total of $3.1 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Marshal Lighting Group had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 15,000-square-foot property generated revenue of $313,950 or $21 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 360 Industrial Loop parcel has frontage of 180 feet and is 172 feet deep with a total lot size of 30,918 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M3-1 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on August 21, 2012. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The block

There are eight active new building construction projects totaling 118,704 square feet. The largest is a 47,233-square-foot S-2 building developed by Jack Gusenfitter with plans filed August 18, 2016 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 14,330-square-foot B building developed by Joseph Giannetti with plans filed January 19, 2021 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 90 percent of the 349,732 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 5 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that New Empire Corp. owned at least nine commercial properties with 301,439 square feet and a city-determined market value of $55.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $295.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as Fortress Investment Group, Popular Bank, and Axos Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 94 percent of the 301,439 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with specialty properties next occupying 6 percent of the space. The bulk, or 58 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 36 percent of the space.

Surrounding

PincusCo has not identified any commercial real estate items of interest within a 400-foot radius of 360 Industrial Loop that occurred over the past 24 months.

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