George Xu’s Century Development submits 52-unit condo plan at Flushing hotel, resi project

George Xu of Century Development Group through the entity CG & J Realty, LLC submitted a condominium plan at 35-32 Leavitt Street in Flushing, Queens, for 52 apartments and four commercial units. The submission did not include a sellout price.

The project is called Northern Residences Condominium, according to the September 28, 2022, submission to the New York State Attorney General. The principal of the sponsor, CG & J Realty, LLC, was George Xu.

On September 6, 2018, George Xu submitted a new building construction project for a 152,161 square-foot hotel (R-1) building at 35-32 Leavitt Street with 246 hotel units and 52 residential units. The plan was permitted on September 16, 2021. It calls for the construction of a 152-foot-tall, 13-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number 421644787.

The property

The 35-32 Leavitt Street parcel has frontage of 247 feet and is 125 feet deep with a total lot size of 31,500 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-3 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 2.43 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $7.9 million.The most recent loan totaled $65.7 million and was provided by Maxim Capital Group on May 6, 2022.

Prior sales and revenue

The property is owned by Century Development Group.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received $32,590 in ECB penalties and $33,340 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020.

The neighborhood

In Flushing, the bulk, or 45 percent of the 37.8 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 $542.6 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 4th highest in Queens. For development, Flushing has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 5th highest in Queens. It had 2.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 11 of the 59 commercial properties representing 29,231 square feet of the 63,762 square feet. The two identified owners are Century Development Group and Peter Cheng. On the tax block, there were four new building construction projects totaling 168,961 square feet. The largest is a 282-unit, 152,161 square-foot R-1 building developed by George Xu with plans filed September 6, 2018 and permitted September 16, 2021. The second largest is a six-unit, 7,040 square-foot R-2 building developed by Jian Wu with plans filed November 3, 2017 and permitted March 10, 2021.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Century Development Group owned at least 38 commercial properties in New York City with 528,178 square feet and a city-determined market value of $68.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $246.2 million in debt, with top three lenders as Maxim Capital Group, Sovcombank, and MidFirst Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 528,178 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with hotel properties next occupying 32 percent of the space. They are all located in Queens.

The surrounding

This is the first commercial real estate event of interest identified within the 400-foot radius of 35-32 Leavitt Street in the past 24 months.

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