Ciampa Organization signs $32M refi for 143-unit elevator rental in LIC

Ciampa Organization through the entity Ciampa Crescent LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Capital One valued at $32 million for the midblock 143-unit residential elevator building at 41-34 Crescent Street in Long Island City, Queens.
The deal closed on February 28, 2022 and was recorded on March 23, 2022. The prior lender was Capital One which held debt that had an original loan amount of $39.2 million.

The property has 124,500 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $257 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 owner bought the property on June 27, 2006, for $10.6 million. The signatory for Ciampa Organization was Christine Falco. The signatory for Capital One was Mohamed H. Khalil.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Joseph Ciampa, head officer and Jose Merchan, site manager. The business entity is Ciampa Crescent Llc. The 124,500-square-foot property generated revenue of $4.9 million or $39 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 41-34 Crescent Street parcel has frontage of 146 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 16,536 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-5/R9 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 7.52 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property has a 421A exemption that started in 2010 and expires in 2025. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $23.8 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was not involved in any lawsuits or bankruptcies in the past years. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $11,250 in ECB penalties and $11,250 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 $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Long Island City, the bulk, or 33 percent of the 66.2 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Long Island City has 4.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the highest in Queens. For development, Long Island City is the 2nd 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 14 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 12 commercial properties representing 148,529 square feet of the 373,218 square feet. The two identified owners are Ciampa Organization and New Empire Corp. There are two active new building construction projects totaling 169,600 square feet. The largest is a 96-unit, 149,580-square-foot R-2 building developed by Anthony Pecora with plans filed December 24, 2014 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 24-unit, 20,020-square-foot R-2 building developed by Louis Evangelista with plans filed April 18, 2016 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 93 percent of the 360,514 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 3 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database, which is incomplete, currently indicates that Ciampa Organization owned at least nine commercial properties with 852,878 square feet and a city-determined market value of $137.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $134.1 million in debt, borrowed from Capital One. Within the portfolio, all identified are residential elevator properties. They are all located in Queens.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 41-34 Crescent Street, Pincusco identified 10 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those 10 items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on August 23, 2021 for a 240,611-square-foot R-2 building with 317 residential units at 41-34 27th Street.
Of those 10 items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $88.7 million. The most recent of the two was New Empire Corp. which bought the 6,000-square-foot, two-unit retail building (K1) on 24-01 Queens Plaza North and one other property for $25.7 million from Ciampa Organization on February 11, 2022.
Of those 10 items, seven were loans above $5 million totaling $128.8 million. The most recent of the seven was Ciampa Organization which borrowed $20.2 million from Capital One secured by the 76,000-square-foot, 88-unit rental (D9) on 41-24 24th Street on March 16, 2022.

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