Cun Chen plans 42-unit project in Flushing

The individual Cun Chen submitted a new building construction project for a 42-unit, 44,013 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 134-11 Franklin Avenue in Flushing, Queens. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on August 1, 2023 under job number Q00900187. It calls for the construction of a 10-story building. The project is described in the filing as: to erect new 10 story mixed use building with 42 residential units.
This is Cun Chen’s fifth new building project filed since 2015, according to a PincusCo review of DOB data. The architect is Angelo Ng & Anthony Ng Architects S.

The property

The property with 3 residential units in Flushing has 2,760 square feet of built space and 2,286 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 5,051 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 20 feet and is 130 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,079 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.8 million.

Prior sales and revenue

Three adjacent three-unit buildings were sold in three transactions for $6.7 million to Xin Xiang Lin in 2023.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received $1,630 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Flushing, The bulk, or 45 percent of the 37.7 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space. In sales, Flushing has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $828.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 3rd highest in Queens. For development, Flushing has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 5th highest in Queens. It had 2.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other development buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owner of the one commercial property that spans that spans 63,325 square feet on the block.The identified owner is Xiang Yu Cao. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 44,013 square feet. It is a 42-unit, 44,013 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Cun Chen with plans filed August 1, 2023 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Xin Xiang Lin owned at least seven commercial properties with 238 residential units in New York City with 258,936 square feet and a city-determined market value of $49.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $87.8 million in debt, with top three lenders as Cathay Bank, Popular Bank, and Amerasia Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 64 percent of the 258,936 square feet of built space are D7 properties, with elevator properties next occupying 26 percent of the space. The bulk, or 98 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Manhattan next at 2 percent of the space.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 134-11 Franklin Avenue, PincusCo identified two commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those two items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit issued on October 17, 2022 for a 11,400-square-foot residential (R-2) building with 13 residential units at 42-61 Saull Street. One of those two items was a loan which Xiang Yu Cao borrowed $10.3 million from Preferred Bank secured by the 63,325-square-foot, 64-unit rental (D1) on 134-38 Maple Avenue on September 26, 2022.

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