Jing Bo Li pays $5.57M for 2 retail buildings in East Harlem

Jing Bo Li paid $5.575 million for two adjacent retail building at 2138-2140 Third Avenue between 116th and 117th streets, in East Harlem, Manhattan, in two transactions.

In the first, Jing Bo Li through the entity JB Realty Li LLC paid $2.78 million to Virginia Diaz through the entity 2138 Third Ave LLC for the retail building (K2) at 2138 Third Avenue in East Harlem, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on April 23, 2025 and was recorded on May 2, 2025. The property has 6,295 square feet of built space and 18,700 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 25,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $442 and the price per buildable square foot is $111 per the PincusCo analysis.

In the second, Jing Bo Li through the entity JB Realty Li LLC paid $2.78 million to Virginia Diaz through the entity 2140 Third Ave LLC for the mixed-use building (K4) at 2140 Third Avenue in East Harlem, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on April 23, 2025 and was recorded on May 2, 2025. The property has 7,000 square feet of built space and 18,000 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 25,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $398 and the price per buildable square foot is $111 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 Virginia Diaz was Kimberly Gardner. The signatory for Jing Bo Li was Jing Bo Li. The contract date was December 3, 2024.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Jing Bo Li had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Virginia Diaz had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The retail building in East Harlem has 6,295 square feet of built space and 18,700 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 25,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,500 square feet. The zoning is C4-6 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $683,000.

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 East Harlem, The majority, or 51 percent of the 52.4 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, East Harlem has 1.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $516.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 21st highest in Manhattan. For development, East Harlem has 1.7 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 21st highest in Manhattan. It had 2.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were three pre-foreclosure suit filed among other retail buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 21 of the 47 commercial properties representing 351,277 square feet of the 509,061 square feet. The largest owner is Emerald Equity Group, followed by Myron J. Berman and then Raymond Chakkalo.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 49 percent of the 509,061 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space.

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