Century Development Group signs $43M construction loan 119-unit project in LIC

Century Development Group through the entity Mps Two, LLC as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender Bank Hapoalim valued at $43 million for the 119-unit project at 11-36 45th Road in Long Island City, Queens.
On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 119-unit building. The project was submitted by George Jiapeng Xu with plans filed August 8, 2022.
The deal closed on May 25, 2023 and was recorded on June 9, 2023. The prior lender was Bank Hapoalim which held debt that had an original loan amount of $15 million.

The owner bought the property on May 31, 2019, for $26 million. The signatory for Century Development Group was George Xu. The signatory for Bank Hapoalim was Gerard DePoalo and Hui Hui Liao.

Prior sales and revenue

The 56,000-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.7 million or $31 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 175 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 34,499 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-4/R6A which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 3 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $8.3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, $12,500 in ECB penalties, and $12,500 in OATH penalties in the last year.

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 9th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Long Island City is the 4th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 9.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 15 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other office buildings in the past 12 months.

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.
There is a 36-unit building submitted by George Xu with plans filed September 26, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 92 percent of the 80,025 square feet of built space are office buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Century Development Group owned at least 11 commercial properties with 241 residential units in New York City with 346,767 square feet and a city-determined market value of $48.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $281.4 million in debt, with top three lenders as Maxim Capital Group, Sovcombank, and Webster Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 54 percent of the 346,767 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with office properties next occupying 23 percent of the space. They are all located in Queens.

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