Developer Xin Xiang Lin pays $37.5M to local bank owners for likely dev site in Flushing

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 retail building (K7) at 136-29 38th Avenue in Flushing, Queens. This building is 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 bank building sale closed on July 10, 2023 and was recorded on July 21, 2023. The property has 12,021 square feet of built space and 33,607 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 45,623 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $3,119 and the price per buildable square foot is $821 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 Richard Gelman and Corey Gelman was Richard Gelman and Corey Gelman. The signatory for Cun Long Chen and Xin Xiang Lin was Cun Long Chen and Xin Xiang Lin.

The National Bank of New York City was founded in 1963 and by 1986 was led by Jack Farber as the bank’s chairman and owner, and Richard Gelman, as the president.

The National Bank of New York City was acquired by Newtek Business Services Corp. in January 2023 and is now a division of the newly formed Newtek Bank.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Cun Long Chen had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Richard Gelman had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 12,021-square-foot property generated revenue of $647,222 or $54 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The retail building in Flushing has 12,021 square feet of built space and 33,607 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 45,623 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 121 feet and is 232 feet deep with a total lot size of 18,775 square feet. 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.

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 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 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 2.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $761.3 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 3rd highest in Queens. For development, Flushing has 2.4 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 5th highest in Queens. It had 2.5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 18 commercial properties representing 168,578 square feet of the 318,716 square feet. The largest owner is ZL Development Group, followed by Yin Chou Hu and then Solil Management.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 557,976 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 majority, or 38 percent of the 318,716 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 26 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Xin Xiang Lin owned at least six commercial properties with 238 residential units in New York City with 246,915 square feet and a city-determined market value of $44.8 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 67 percent of the 246,915 square feet of built space are D7 properties, with elevator properties next occupying 27 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.

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