George Xu’s Century Development Group pays $6M for LIC office

George Xu’s Century Development Group through the entity 21 St Ventures, LLC paid $6 million to Miguel Oks through the entity Lopar’s Path, LLC for the office building (O5) at 45-46 21st Street in Long Island City, Queens. Century Development Group already owns the adjacent parcels where he plans a 36-unit building.
The deal closed on October 5, 2023 and was recorded on October 23, 2023. The property has 13,500 square feet of built space for a total buildable of 13,500 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $444 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 property

The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 89 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,500 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 $1.3 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 $7,000 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 $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Long Island City, The bulk, or 32 percent of the 60.1 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space. In sales, Long Island City has the 9th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.9 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Long Island City is the 4th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 8.6 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 14 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were three pre-foreclosure suit filed among other office buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the five commercial properties representing 66,525 square feet of the 80,025 square feet. The identified owner is Century Development Group.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 140,272 square feet. The largest is a two-unit, 140,272 square-foot residential (R-3) building submitted by Adam Ginsburg with plans filed May 13, 2015 and permitted April 12, 2016. The second largest is a 36-unit building submitted by George Xu with plans filed September 26, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 92 percent of the 80,025 square feet of built space are office buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link