Harbor Group International files $52.5M pre-foreclosure at 143-unit Astoria rental

Harbor Group International filed a $52.5 million pre-foreclosure action at the newly constructed 143-unit Astoria mixed-use rental building called the Astor at 36-20 Steinway Street. The lender, which is also a major residential property owner, alleges in the complaint that the loan originated in 2021 by the Harbor Group affiliate HGI Commercial Funding I LLC, went into default as of October 1, 2023, because the borrower did not make a loan payment. Harbor Group filed the complaint yesterday in Queens County Supreme Court. The borrower, Steinway Street Investors I Subsidiary LLC, is affiliated with Jason Halpern’s JMH Development and Gerard Longo’s Mettle Property Group.
Case 714724/2024 LINK

Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.

The 147,191-square-foot property is divided into five commercial condominium units. Unit RU holds the 143 residential units, units CU-1 and CU-2 are the retail units and there are two parking units.

The developers filed the plans in 2019 under job number 420658559 and the city issued the building its certificate of occupancy on June 28, 2024. The borrowers control the property as tenants of a 99-year ground lease originally signed with landlord Western Beef, but the fee is now owned by an affiliate, Cactus Asset Management, led by Peter F. Castellana III, who is a member of the family that owns Western Beef.

An Avison Young brokerage team is marketing the property for sale. The property has a 421a tax abatement and has a 20-year retail lease with Lexus of Queens, according to the listing. There is no asking price.

The property

The condo building with 143 residential units in Long Island City has 147,560 square feet of built space and 988 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 148,233 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 470 feet and is 106 feet deep with a total lot size of 49,411 square feet. The zoning is C4-2A which allows for up to 3 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 3 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing.

The neighborhood

In Long Island City, The bulk, or 32 percent of the 60.2 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 7th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Long Island City is the 6th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 6.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 10 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other development buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the six commercial properties representing 25,677 square feet of the 35,677 square feet. The largest owner is Bram Auto Group, followed by New York Police Department and then Platinum Realty Associates. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 5,611 square feet. It is a 5,611 square-foot mercantile (M) building submitted by Michael Pasztor with plans filed March 18, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The surrounding

This is the first commercial real estate event of interest identified within the 400-foot radius of 36-36 Steinway Street in the past 24 months.

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