Emanuel Westfried signs $44M refi with Webster Bank in Astoria

Emanuel Westfried’s Astoria Crescent Owner LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Webster Bank valued at $44 million for the new construction office building 30-14 Crescent Street in Astoria, Queens.

On these lots, there is a new building construction project for a 91,400 square-foot office (B) building. The project was submitted by Juan Quevedo-Bosch with plans filed January 5, 2018 and permitted April 2, 2021.
The loan closed on February 15, 2023 and was recorded on March 2, 2023. The prior lender was Knighthead Funding which held debt that had an original loan amount of $42 million.
The signatory for Astoria Crescent Owner LLC was Emanuel Westfried. The signatory for Webster Bank was Michael Savarese. Astoria Crescent Owner LLC obtained a $42 million construction loan in 2020 from Knighthead Funding.

The property

The 30-14 Crescent Street parcel has frontage of 97 feet and is 182 feet deep with a total lot size of 16,376 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R6A which allows for up to 3 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.2 million. The most recent loan totaled $42 million and was provided by Knighthead Funding on December 17, 2020.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have not received any significant violations in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Astoria, the bulk, or 36 percent of the 40.1 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space. In sales, Astoria has 3.1 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 2nd highest in Queens. For development, Astoria has 3.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 4th highest in Queens. It had 3.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 8 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 30-14 Crescent Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the 10 commercial properties representing zero square feet of the 67,532 square feet. The identified owner is Astoria Crescent Owner LLC.
On the tax block, there were four new building construction projects totaling 113,836 square feet. The largest is this 91,400-square-foot B building developed by Juan Quevedo-Bosch with plans filed January 5, 2018 and permitted April 2, 2021. The second largest is a 16-unit, 12,495-square-foot R-2 building developed by Eric Belanich with plans filed February 1, 2018 and permitted December 26, 2018.

The majority, or 27 percent of the 67,532 square feet of built space are office buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space.

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