Grapetree Lending buys $5.5M note secured by industrial in Ditmars Steinway

Grapetree Lending LLC in care of Altisource Asset Management bought a note with an original principal of $5.5 million from SSA NE Assets, LLC secured by the industrial building (G1) at 18-20 Steinway Street in Ditmars Steinway, Queens. The Okon family which operates the multi-state black car and limousine service, The BLS Company,  owns the building, which is the local New York City office. The main company headquarters is in Hicksville, Long Island. The property has an alternate address of 18-21 Steinway Place.
The deal closed on February 3, 2023 and was recorded on March 24, 2023. The prior lender was SSA NE Assets, LLC which held debt that had an original loan amount of $5.5 million.

The property has 20,000 square feet of built space for a total buildable of 20,002 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data.
The signatory for the former lender SSA NE Assets, LLC, was Robert Talasazan.

Prior sales and revenue

The 20,000-square-foot property generated revenue of $288,800 or $14 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 18-21 Steinway Place parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 20,002 square feet. The zoning is M1-1 which allows for up to 1 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.3 million.The most recent loan totaled $5.5 million and was provided by SSA NE Assets, LLC on February 28, 2022.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations 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 Ditmars Steinway, the bulk, or 41 percent of the 11.1 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 26 percent of the space. In sales, Ditmars Steinway has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $104 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Ditmars Steinway has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 8th highest in Queens. It had 1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 9 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the 14 commercial properties representing 20,000 square feet of the 110,201 square feet. The identified owner is Okon Family.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 5,000 square feet. It is a 5,000-square-foot S-2 building developed by Michael Rienzi with plans filed February 25, 2016 and permitted April 11, 2019.

The majority, or 89 percent of the 110,201 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space.

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