City pays $50M to Stawski Partners for new school location in LIC

The New York City School Construction Authority paid $50 million to Stawski Partners through the entity Long Island City Center LLC for the office building (O2) at 23-10 43rd Avenue in Long Island City, Queens. The city plans to demolish the existing structure to build a 547-seat elementary school, the Sunnyside Post reported last year.
The deal closed on April 5, 2023 and was recorded on April 10, 2023. The property has 97,650 square feet of built space and 113,819 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 211,560 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $512 and the price per buildable square foot is $236 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 Stawski Partners was Abraham ‘Axel’  Stawski. The signatory for NYC School Construction Authority and NYC Department of Education was Nina Kubota.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer NYC School Construction Authority purchased 19 properties in 12 transactions for a total of $178.4 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Stawski Partners had not purchased any other properties and sold two properties in one transactionsfor a total of $176 million over the same time period. The 97,650-square-foot property generated revenue of $2.3 million or $23 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The office building in Long Island City has 97,650 square feet of built space and 113,819 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 211,560 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 181 feet and is 133 feet deep with a total lot size of 21,156 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-6/R10 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $18.4 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 $625 in ECB penalties, $1,305 in OATH penalties, and one housing litigation 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 the 9th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.6 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 8.9 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.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the three commercial properties representing 3,092 square feet of the 100,742 square feet. The identified owner is Carmel Partners.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 937,956 square feet. The largest is a 923-unit, 934,864 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Stawski Partners and filed by Axel Stawski with plans filed May 11, 2016 and permitted April 26, 2017. The second largest is a one-unit, 3,092 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Axel Stawski with plans filed December 22, 2015 and permitted August 11, 2016.

The majority, or 100 percent of the 100,742 square feet of built space are office buildings, with development buildings next occupying 0 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Stawski Partners owned at least four commercial properties in New York City with 1,090,451 square feet. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $196.9 million in debt, with top three lenders as Apple Bank for Savings, Helaba, and Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen Girozentrale respectively. Within the portfolio, all identified are office properties. They are all located in Manhattan.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that NYC Department of Education owned at least 922 commercial properties with two residential units in New York City with 99,402,361 square feet and a city-determined market value of None. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 99 percent of the 99,402,361 square feet of built space are specialty properties, with office properties next occupying 1 percent of the space. The bulk, or 37 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Bronx next at 23 percent of the space.
The PincusCo database currently indicates that NYC School Construction Authority owned at least 15 commercial properties in New York City with 538,698 square feet and a city-determined market value of None. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 82 percent of the 538,698 square feet of built space are specialty properties, with industrial properties next occupying 12 percent of the space. The bulk, or 76 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Bronx next at 12 percent of the space.

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