Ira Appelbaum pays $3.5M for mixed-use in Astoria

Ira Appelbaum through the entity A & E Gems LLC paid $3.5 million to Salvatore Gaudio through the entity Gmd 1435 LLC for the four-unit mixed-use building (K4) at 30-14 Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens.
The deal closed on September 13, 2023 and was recorded on September 25, 2023. The property has 6,930 square feet of built space and 1,224 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,166 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $505 and the price per buildable square foot is $428 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 November 2, 2015, for $3.3 million. The signatory for Salvatore Gaudio was Salvatore Gaudio. The signatory for Ira Appelbaum was Ira Appelbaum. The contract date was May 2, 2023.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Ira Appelbaum had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Salvatore Gaudio purchased three properties in two transactions for a total of $12.6 million and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $7.3 million over the same time period.

The property

The mixed-use building with 4 residential units in Astoria has 6,930 square feet of built space and 1,224 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,166 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 30 feet and is 90 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,722 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 city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.3 million.

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 $50 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 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 3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 2nd highest in Queens. For development, Astoria has 3.1 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 4th highest in Queens. It had 3.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 8 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other mixed-use buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 52 commercial properties representing 26,223 square feet of the 228,968 square feet. The largest owner is Simkho Aranbayev, followed by Manouchehr Malekan and then Kwang On Bang.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 13,840 square feet. The largest is a eight-unit, 7,144 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Robert Last with plans filed September 12, 2014 and permitted April 6, 2017. The second largest is a five-unit, 6,696 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by John Budis with plans filed November 22, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 51 percent of the 228,968 square feet of built space are mixed-use buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Salvatore Gaudio owned at least nine commercial properties with 113 residential units in New York City with 78,999 square feet and a city-determined market value of $29.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $5.7 million in debt, borrowed from Maspeth Federal Savings and Loan Association. Within the portfolio, all identified are walkup properties. The bulk, or 75 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 25 percent of the space.

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