Hafeez Choudhary ups debt to $60M with GreenLake for new LIC hotel

Hafeez Choudhary through the entity Queens Plaza South, LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender GreenLake Asset Management through the entity GreenLake Real Estate Finance LLC valued at $60 million for the hotel building (H9) at 52-09 31st Place in Long Island City, Queens.
The deal closed on August 10, 2023 and was recorded on August 21, 2023. The prior lender was GreenLake Asset Management which held debt that had an original loan amount of $49.5 million.

The property has 104,875 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $309 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 owner bought the property on June 4, 2013, for $2.2 million. The signatory for Hafeez Choudhary was Hafeez U. Choudhary. The signatory for GreenLake Asset Management was Paul Diamond.

The property

The hotel building in Long Island City has 104,875 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 79 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 20,296 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-3 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.6 million. The most recent loan totaled $49.5 million and was provided by GreenLake Asset Management on August 30, 2019.

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 one DOB violation, $55,245 in ECB penalties, and $59,625 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 8th 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 8.5 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.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the six commercial properties representing 104,875 square feet of the 161,244 square feet. The identified owner is Hafeez Choudhary.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 183,116 square feet. The largest is a 200-unit, 101,410 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Delwar Hussain with plans filed February 13, 2014 and permitted March 14, 2016. The second largest is a 282-unit, 81,706 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by McSam Hotel Group and filed by Sam Chang with plans filed November 14, 2018 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 65 percent of the 161,244 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 35 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Hafeez Choudhary owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 104,875 square feet and a city-determined market value of $5.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $49.5 million in debt, borrowed from GreenLake Asset Management. The portfolio consists of at least a single hotel property. It is located in Queens.

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