Heartfelt Townhouse Builders signs ground lease valued at $18M with Yakar Partners for dev site in Astoria

Heartfelt Townhouse Builders through the entity LIC Forty Two Holdings LLC as tenant signed a 99-year ground lease valued at $18 million with landlord Yakar Partners through the entity 42-08 35th Owner LLC for the development site at 42-08 35th Avenue in Astoria, Queens. The expected use is ground up development.

On these lots, there is one active new building construction project, Q01288130, for a 99-unit, 89,693 square-foot residential (R-2) building. The project was submitted by Joel Weiss of Heartfelt Townhouse Builders with plans filed September 16, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet. The plan says the developers expect a total of 234 units on the tax lots.
The deal closed on October 6, 2025 and was recorded on October 15, 2025. The two properties have 19,000 square feet of built space and 116,000 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 135,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $947 and the price per buildable square foot is $133 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 signatory for Yakar Partners was David Sussman . The signatory for Heartfelt Townhouse Builders was Raizel Feder . The firm is also referred to as Heartfelt Townhouse Build. This is a 99-year ground lease. Hakimian Organization bought the property for about $15.8 million then according to a source, flipped it for about $20 million. A group including Yakar was seeking to sell the property, and RIPCO Real Estate’s Stephen Preuss and Andreas Efthymiou were marketing it for sale, according to marketing material online. They were asking in the mid-$20 millions, according to a source.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Heartfelt Townhouse Builders had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Yakar Partners had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. Out of the two properties, one with a total of 19,000 square feet of built space generated revenue of $173,894 per year.

The property

The industrial building in Astoria has 19,000 square feet of built space and 116,000 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 135,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 90 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,000 square feet. The zoning is M1-4/R7X which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 5 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.4 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have not received any significant violations in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Astoria, The bulk, or 36 percent of the 40.2 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space. In sales, Astoria has 2.7 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $800.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 2nd highest in Queens. For development, Astoria has 1.5 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 3rd highest in Queens. It had 2.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were two pre-foreclosure suit filed among other industrial buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 42-08 35th Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the seven commercial properties representing 43,300 square feet of the 64,976 square feet. The two identified owners are Premier Equities and Cw Realty Group.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 89,693 square feet. It is a 99-unit, 89,693 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Joel Weiss and filed by Joel Weiss with plans filed September 16, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 56 percent of the 64,976 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 44 percent of the space.

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