Guy Pennisi pays $11.1M to Leser Group for development in St George

Guy Pennisi through the entity Ftk Group Holdings LLC paid $11.1 million to Leser Group through the entity Central Avenue Developers LLC for the development parcel (V1) at 118 Central Avenue in St George, Staten Island. The expected use is ground up development.
The deal closed on November 19, 2025 and was recorded on January 7, 2026. The property has zero square feet of built space and 101,938 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 101,938 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $108 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 seller bought the property on February 27, 2023, for $8.5 million. The signatory for Leser Group was Abraham Leser . The signatory for Guy Pennisi was Guy Pennisi. The contract date was July 21, 2025.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Guy Pennisi had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Leser Group had not purchased any other properties and sold two properties in two transactions for a total of $20.4 million over the same time period.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 216 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 41,950 square feet. The zoning is C4-2 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 $3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $3.5 million money judgment concerning a construction filed on June 6, 2024, by Marcal Group against Leser Group. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received two DOB violations, $36,000 in ECB penalties, and $36,350 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 block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 12 of the 24 commercial properties representing 13,497 square feet of the 430,783 square feet. The two identified owners are Andrew Gonchar and Leser Group.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 87 percent of the 430,783 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 5 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Leser Group owned at least 32 commercial properties with 420 residential units in New York City with 1,489,924 square feet and a city-determined market value of $181.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $720.3 million in debt, with top three lenders as UMB Bank, Tel Aviv Stock Exchange bondholders, and Ponce Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 34 percent of the 1,489,924 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 26 percent of the space. The bulk, or 73 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Bronx next at 22 percent of the space.

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