Bentley Zhao’s New Empire files plans for 131-unit project in Woodside

Bentley Zhao of New Empire Corp. submitted a new building construction project for a 131-unit, 94,609-square-foot residential (R-2) building at 58-01 Queens Boulevard in Woodside, Queens. The plan was filed on September 22, 2022. It calls for the construction of a 120-foot-tall, 12-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number Q00790556. The architect is Tang Studio Architect LLC. The project is described in the filing as: erecting a residential building as per plans.

The Real Deal reported earlier this year that New Empire intends to build a condominium building on the site. 

New Empire Corp. through the entity 5801 Management LLC paid $16.2 million to Carol Wolfe through the entity 44-01 58 St LLC for retail building (K1) at 58-01 Queens Boulevard in Woodside, Queens and industrial building (G7) at 44-01 58th Street in Woodside, Queens. The deal closed on June 17, 2022.

Bentley Zhao spoke with PincusCo in August about this and other condominium projects his firm is working on.

The 58-01 Queens Boulevard parcel has frontage of 175 feet and is 105 feet deep with a total lot size of 16,424 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R7X which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.8 million.The most recent loan totaled $8.1 million and was provided by Stearns Bank on June 17, 2022.

The retail building in Woodside has 8,400 square feet of built space and 73,743 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 82,120 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data.

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the five commercial properties representing 102,758 square feet of the 181,222 square feet. The identified owner is Kahen Properties. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 94,609 square feet. It is a 131-unit, 94,609-square-foot R-2 building developed by Bentley Zhao with plans filed September 22, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

Within a 400-foot radius of 58-01 Queens Boulevard, Pincusco identified two commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those two items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $45 million. The most recent of the two was Kahen Properties which borrowed $20 million from Santander Bank secured by the 102,758-square-foot, 90-unit rental (D6) on 58-25 Queens Boulevard on November 1, 2021.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.