Kassin Sabbagh Realty affiliate acquires 23-unit Flushing condo in bankruptcy

A Kassin Sabbagh Realty affiliate through the entity BK 38th Lender LLC acquired the 23-unit condominium building with retail and community facility at 142-28 38th Avenue in Flushing, Queens through a foreclosure auction. Kassin Sabbagh Realty won the auction with a credit bid of $23.5 million through a judicial foreclosure that followed a bankruptcy. The former owners included Ai Guang Chen and Jin Wu Yu.
The deal closed on November 7, 2024 and was recorded on November 19, 2024. The condo units have 56,662 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $414 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 the court was attorney and referee Frank Bruno Jr. The signatory for Kassin Sabbagh Realty was attorney Ralph A. Dweck. The contract date was November 7, 2024.
This is a bankruptcy 23-41864 and foreclosure 725426/2020 sale from for Shirokia Tower with 23 residential units, with the former owners Ai Guang Chen and Jin Wu Yu. The property has had at least two bankruptcies and two foreclosure actions over the past 10 years. The bankruptcy approved the foreclosure sale, and the property was sold through the Queens state court foreclosure. The bankruptcy listed a secured claim by the lender for $32.26 million, in an October 2023 motion. Abraham Kassin is identified as managing member of the lender entity, BK 38th Lender LLC. The final total due was $38.8 million, and the credit bid was $23.5 million leaving a deficiency of $15.3 million.
Greg Corbin’s Northgate Real Estate Group marketed the property for sale.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Kassin Sabbagh Realty purchased seven properties in seven transactions for a total of $40.1 million and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $8 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Ai Guang Chen had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The retail condo in Flushing has 56,662 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has a total lot size of 11,639 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.5 million.

Development

For the tax lot buildings, one out of the 74 buildings received a initial certificate of occupancy in the last ten years. 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 Flushing, The bulk, or 45 percent of the 37.7 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space. In sales, Flushing has 3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $759 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 2nd highest in Queens. For development, Flushing has 1.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 3rd highest in Queens. It had 1.8 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 142-28 38th Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the seven commercial properties representing 31,226 square feet of the 118,315 square feet. The two identified owners are Byuing Hyo Im and Junee & K. Corp..
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 50 percent of the 118,315 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 26 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Kassin Sabbagh Realty owned at least five commercial properties with 28 residential units in New York City with 36,449 square feet and a city-determined market value of $7.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $16.5 million in debt, borrowed from East West Bank and Signature Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 43 percent of the 36,449 square feet of built space are retail properties, with walkup properties next occupying 29 percent of the space. The bulk, or 47 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 29 percent of the space.

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