Ke An Chen, Xin Xian Lin pay $10.2M for likely dev site in LIC

Ke An Chen and Xin Xian Lin through the entity 73 Hunter Tower LLC paid $10.2 million to Howard S. Cohen through the entity Israel Cohen Family Limited Partnership for the industrial building (F9) at 42-71 Hunter Street and the adjacent industrial building (F4) at 42-73 Hunter Street in Long Island City, Queens. The expected use is ground up development.
The deal closed on January 16, 2026 and was recorded on February 3, 2026. The two properties have 4,950 square feet of built space and 19,932 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 24,885 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $2,060 and the price per buildable square foot is $409 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 Howard S. Cohen was Howard S. Cohen. The signatory for Ke An Chen and Xin Xian Lin was Ke An Chen. The contract date was August 16, 2025.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Ke An Chen had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Howard S. Cohen had not purchased any other properties and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $3.5 million over the same time period. The two properties with a total of 4,950 square feet of built space generated revenue of $168,189 per year or $34 per square foot. The sale price per square foot was $2,061.

The property

The industrial building in Long Island City has 4,950 square feet of built space and 19,932 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 24,885 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 99 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,499 square feet. The zoning is M1-5/R7-3 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $570,000.

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 received two DOB violations 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 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 3.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the highest in Queens. For development, Long Island City is the 9th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 6.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 10 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 42-71 Hunter Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 15 commercial properties representing 212,981 square feet of the 299,583 square feet. The largest owner is Io Logistics, followed by Prakashkumar Patel and then Lions Group.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 214,946 square feet. The largest is a 150-unit, 151,141 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Fetner Properties and filed by Harold Fetner with plans filed April 24, 2019 and permitted January 5, 2022. The second largest is a 40-unit, 31,974 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Nissim Seliktar and filed by Nissim Seliktar with plans filed May 17, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 43 percent of the 299,583 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with office buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Ke An Chen owned at least five commercial properties with 66 residential units in New York City with 17,596 square feet and a city-determined market value of $2.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $25.4 million in debt, borrowed from Ponce Bank and Cathay Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 100 percent of the 17,596 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with development properties next occupying 0 percent of the space. They are all located in Queens.

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