Cun Long Chen files plans for 91K sf commercial building in Flushing

Cun Long Chen submitted a new building construction project for a 91,568 square-foot commercial building at 37-18 138th Street in Flushing, Queens. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on January 26, 2024 under job number Q00980376. It calls for the construction of a nine-story building. The project is described in the filing as: erect new nine-story commercial building. The architect is Angelo Ng & Anthony Ng Architects.

Developers Cun Long Chen and Xin Xiang Lin through the entity New Age Developers LLC paid $37.5 million to Richard Gelman and Corey Gelman through the entity Gelfarb Properties, LLC for the bank building (K7) at 136-29 38th Avenue in Flushing, Queens. The sale date was July 10, 2023.

This building was the long-time home to the National Bank of New York City, which as an even smaller lender Flushing National Bank, in 1975 sued to lift a moratorium on bond payments.

The property

The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-3 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 2.43 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.3 million. The most recent loan totaled $16 million and was provided by Amerasia Bank on July 10, 2023.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation 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 $888.8 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 2nd 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 2.2 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 owners of eight of the 18 commercial properties representing 180,599 square feet of the 318,716 square feet. The largest owner is Cun Long Chen, followed by F&T Group and then Lian Wu Shao. On the tax block, there were four new building construction projects totaling 649,544 square feet. The largest is a 148-unit, 404,480 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Rockefeller Group and filed by Frederic Sondik with plans filed October 31, 2013 and permitted December 16, 2014. The second largest is a 129,661 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Lions Group and filed by Albert Shirian with plans filed June 5, 2020 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Cun Long Chen owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 12,021 square feet and a city-determined market value of $4.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single retail property. It is located in Queens.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 136-30 37 Avenue, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those four items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit application filed on May 19, 2022 for the $3.4 million renovation of 29,322-square-foot assembly (A-3) building with zero residential units at 136-19 37th Avenue. Of those four items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $41.3 million. The most recent of the two was F&T Group which bought the 119,985-square-foot industrial (G7) on 37-01 138th Street for $32.8 million from Rockefeller Group Development on June 12, 2023. One of those four items was a loan which F&T Group borrowed $57.1 million from JPMorgan Chase and Barclays secured by 17 condo units in the 24,545-square-foot, 508-unit mixed-use building (RC) on 38-25 Main Street on May 19, 2023.

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