Forest Hills shopping center sells to diamond dealer affiliate for $25M

An affiliate of the diamond dealing Alishaev family, through the entity Queens Blvd 104 LLC, paid $25 million to long-time owners of the retail shopping center (K1) at 104-15 Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills, Queens. The Alishaev family is also closely connected with Beth Gavriel Bukharian Congregation, which the family co-founded.
The deal closed on April 10, 2024 and was recorded on April 16, 2024. The property has 23,780 square feet of built space and 115,801 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 139,774 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,051 and the price per buildable square foot is $178 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 signatories for the sellers were David M. Felder, Stephen E. Felder, Neil H. Morrow, E. Daniel Korshin, and Susan Korshin. The signatories for the buyer were Natanielle S. Elishaev and Ronit Elishaev. The contract date was November 14, 2023. The buyers are members of the Alishaev/Elishaev family. The Alishaev brothers, Simon, Joseph and Yuri, also known by the names Simha, Yosef, and Uri, own the diamond seller Alishaev Brothers Inc., and helped found the Beth Gavriel Bukharian Congregation.

The property

The retail building in Forest Hills has 23,780 square feet of built space and 115,801 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 139,774 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 236 feet and is 266 feet deep with a total lot size of 40,632 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R7-1 which allows for up to 3.44 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $6 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 10 DOB violations and $112 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 $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Forest Hills, The majority, or 61 percent of the 14.7 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 12 percent of the space. In sales, Forest Hills has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $123.1 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Forest Hills has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 550,464 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

All properties are retail.

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