Breaking Ground pays $12M for LIC dev site, owned for 76 years

Breaking Ground through the entity Breaking Ground II Housing Development Fund Corp paid $12 million to Lupoli Holdings Partnership through the entity Yardley Associates, LLC for the industrial building (G2) at 37-25 21st Street, the industrial building (G2) at 37-07 21st Street, and development parcel (V1) at 37-12 Rear 22nd Street in Long Island City, Queens. The expected use is ground up development.
The deal closed on May 19, 2026 and was recorded on June 8, 2026. The three properties have 9,032 square feet of built space and 106,902 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 115,930 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,328 and the price per buildable square foot is $103 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 Lupoli Holdings Partnership was Joseph Onorato . The signatory for Breaking Ground was David Walsh . The contract date was November 25, 2025. The Lupoli family’s Charles Lupoli acquired the property on August 24, 1949. Joseph Onorato married Virginia Lupoli.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Breaking Ground purchased four properties in three transactions for a total of $443 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Lupoli Holdings Partnership had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. Out of the three properties, two with a total of 9,032 square feet of built space generated revenue of $706,474 per year.

The property

The industrial building in Long Island City has 9,032 square feet of built space and 106,902 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 115,930 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 95 feet and is 130 feet deep with a total lot size of 15,000 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-3 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.3 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 $300 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 3.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the highest in Queens. For development, Long Island City is the 7th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 8.6 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 14 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 37-25 21st Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the nine commercial properties representing 38,298 square feet of the 109,211 square feet. The identified owner is Surjeet Kaur.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 65 percent of the 109,211 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 35 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Breaking Ground owned at least 16 commercial properties with 1,963 residential units in New York City with 1,633,610 square feet and a PincusCo-determined asset value of $1.7 billion. The portfolio has $1 billion in debt, with top three lenders as NYS Housing Finance Agency, City of New York, and City of New York respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 54 percent of the 1,633,610 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with hotel properties next occupying 28 percent of the space. The bulk, or 48 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 35 percent of the space.

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