Century Development files to demo LIC building ahead of 36-unit project

George Xu of Century Development Group through the entity 21 St Ventures, LLC submitted a demolition application for the demolition of a commercial (COM) building at 45-28 21st Street in Long Island City, Queens. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on October 14, 2022 under job number 421812462. It calls for the demolition of a two-story building. The project is described in the filing as: this job is filed for demolition of two story commercial building.

George Xu through the entity Flushing North, LLC submitted a new building construction project for a 36-unit building at 45-28 21 Street. The plan was filed on September 26, 2022. It calls for the construction of a 75-foot tall, six-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number Q00793435. The architect is Lu Ning Architecture, PLLC. The project is described in the filing as: 7-story new building.

Prior sales and revenue

The existing office building in Long Island City has 4,500 square feet of built space and 7,654 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 12,150 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The property is owned by Century Development Group.

The 4,500-square-foot property generated revenue of $157,666 or $35 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020.

The neighborhood

In Long Island City, the bulk, or 34 percent of the 63.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space. In sales, Long Island City has the 9th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.7 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Long Island City is the 3rd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 9.1 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 this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the five commercial properties representing 66,525 square feet of the 80,025 square feet. The identified owner is Century Development Group. On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 140,272 square feet. The largest is a two-unit, 140,272 square-foot residential building developed by Adam Ginsburg with plans filed May 13, 2015 and permitted April 12, 2016. The second largest is a 119-unit building developed by George Jiapeng Xu with plans filed August 8, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Century Development Group owned at least 38 commercial properties in New York City with 528,178 square feet and a city-determined market value of $68.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $246.2 million in debt, with top three lenders as Maxim Capital Group, Sovcombank, and MidFirst Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 528,178 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with hotel properties next occupying 32 percent of the space. They are all located in Queens.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 45-28 21 Street, Pincusco identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those four items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $24.8 million. The most recent of the two was Peak Capital Advisors which bought the 45,707-square-foot, 47-unit rental (C7) on 11-55 45th Avenue for $14.8 million from Kartsonis Realty on July 18, 2022. Of those four items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $92.9 million. The most recent of the two was Peak Capital Advisors which borrowed $15 million from Prime Finance secured by the 45,707-square-foot, 47-unit rental (C7) on 11-55 45th Avenue on July 18, 2022.

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