Gary Chen seeks zoning change to construct 296-unit project in Flushing

Gary Chen through the entity Vernon 298 LLC, submitted an application with New York City’s Department of City Planning for land use actions to facilitate a major mixed-use project at 32-02 Linden Place in Flushing, Queens, with a total of 296 residential units. Richard Lobel, of Sheldon Lobel PC, submitted the application yesterday. Within the 296 units, the plan expects 75 permanently affordable residential units, representing 25 percent of the residential floor area.

Gary Chen, who also uses the name Yi Hua Chen, purchased three of the four tax lots proposed for development in 2023 for $24.6 million, and bought the fourth parcel for $1.85 million in October 2024.

Application 2024Q0324 LINK

Under the proposed plan, Chen seeks to construct a new 10-story plus cellar, mixed-use building with 285,767 square feet of floor area, reflecting a 5.01 floor area ratio. The plan allocates roughly 32,954 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, with the remaining 252,813 square feet dedicated to residential use on the second through tenth floors. The applicant is seeking a zoning map amendment and a zoning text amendment for an area bounded by 32nd Avenue, Linden Place, and Farrington Street.

The submission is seeking to construct a new building on the four tax parcels, Lots 46, 47, 48, and 70, Chen now owns. The proposal would also rezone three tax parcels included within the boundaries of the proposed rezoning, Lots 40, 42, and 43. These three non-applicant-controlled parcels are part of the broader rezoning action but are not being developed under this specific application.

At present, these surrounding lots hold a warehouse, a vacant lot, and a frame house.

The requested zoning map amendment seeks to shift the current M1-1 manufacturing district designation to an R7A residential district, with an R7A/C2-4 commercial overlay mapped along 32nd Avenue. The applicant argues the existing light industrial zoning has failed to incentivize new development on the block. The requested R7A designation, according to the application, matches recent zoning trends nearby, including the 2017 rezoning of the southern portion of the same block.

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 $744.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 3rd highest in Queens. For development, Flushing has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 4th highest in Queens. It had 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 this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 29 commercial properties representing 130,275 square feet of the 243,405 square feet. The largest owner is Century Development Group, followed by Joseph Vitulli Jr. and then Qing Hai Zhu. On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 75,509 square feet. The largest is a 98-unit, 72,446 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Century Development Group and filed by George Xu with plans filed January 4, 2023 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 3,063 square-foot utility and miscellaneous (U) building submitted by Kyong Park with plans filed January 13, 2017 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Yi Hua Chen owned at least 11 commercial properties in New York City with 99,331 square feet and a city-determined market value of $19.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $13 million in debt, borrowed from Soung Eun Hong. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 67 percent of the 99,331 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 33 percent of the space. They are all located in Queens.

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