Farid Jaber of Trade Fair signs $6M refi loan for grocery location in Astoria

Farid “Frank” Jaber through the entity 23-49 Realty LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender First Central Savings Bank valued at $6 million for two properties including the retail building (K1) at 23-55 Broadway in Astoria, Queens and two-unit mixed-use building (S2) at 23-49 Broadway in Astoria, Queens. Jaber owns a chain of mid-market grocery stores called Trade Fair. This property is a Trade Fair location.
The deal closed on January 11, 2023 and was recorded on January 25, 2023. The prior lender was Hanover Community Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $6 million. The two properties have 13,280 square feet of built space and 34,986 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 48,240 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $451 and the price per buildable square foot is $124 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 Farid Jaber was Farid Jaber. The signatory for First Central Savings Bank was John Cetta.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 23-55 Broadway.

Prior sales and revenue

Out of the two properties, one with a total of 13,280 square feet of built space generated revenue of $416,688 per year.

The property

The 23-55 Broadway parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,800 square feet. 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 $1.6 million. The most recent loan totaled $6 million and was provided by Hanover Community Bank (previously Savoy Bank) on July 16, 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 received $1,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

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 3.1 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 3rd highest in Queens. It had 3.3 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 23-55 Broadway, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 13 commercial properties representing 150,391 square feet of the 177,891 square feet. The largest owner is Yousf Eid, followed by Verv Capital and then Peter Vassiliou.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 11,698 square feet. It is a 10-unit, 11,698-square-foot R-2 building developed by Gentian Shyti with plans filed September 14, 2018 and permitted December 3, 2020.

The majority, or 57 percent of the 175,473 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with office buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space.

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