Jasmin Patel pays $17M for LIC hotel that was facing foreclosure

Jasmin Patel through the entity 13th Street Hospitality LLC paid $17 million to James Juhn and George Baharestani through the entity 38-60 13th St Partners LLC for the hotel building (H3) at 38-60 13th Street in Long Island City, Queens.
One June 27, 2022, Metro City Bank filed a pre-foreclosure action against George Baharestani citing a $10.5 million loan.
The deal closed on June 30, 2023 and was recorded on July 7, 2023. The property has 31,015 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $548 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 May 12, 2014, for $2.6 million. The signatory for James Juhn and George Baharestani was James Juhn and George Baharestani. The signatory for Jasmin Patel was Jasmin Patel.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Jasmin Patel had purchased any other properties and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $11 million over the past 24 months.
The seller James Juhn had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes James Juhn, head officer and George Baharestani, shareholder. The business entities are Ny International Student Residence, Inc. and 38-60 13th St Partners Llc.

The property

The hotel building in Long Island City has 31,015 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,999 square feet. 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 $4.8 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in two lawsuits and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The highest value suit was a $10.5 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan filed on June 27, 2022, by Metro City Bank against George Baharestani, Lisa Levine, and James Juhn. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received five DOB violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on January 2, 2018. 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 9th 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 3rd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 10.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 17 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 21 commercial properties representing 77,625 square feet of the 186,225 square feet. The largest owner is Seungho Kim Of Queens Plumbing Supply, followed by Robert Longo Inc. and then Prologis.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 42,555 square feet. It is a 42,555 square-foot storage (S-2) building submitted by TF Cornerstone and filed by Bruce Weill with plans filed September 7, 2018 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 65 percent of the 186,225 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Jasmin Patel owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 50,997 square feet and a city-determined market value of $12.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $24.9 million in debt, borrowed from Dime Community Bank. The portfolio consists of at least a single hotel property. It is located in Manhattan.

Direct link to Acris document. link