Muss Development signs $25M refi loan with Lincoln Life for retail in Forest Hills

Muss Development through the entity Allied Austin, LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Lincoln Life & Annuity Company of New York valued at $25 million for the retail building (K2) at 70-00 Austin Street in Forest Hills, Queens.
The deal closed on June 15, 2022 and was recorded on July 25, 2022. The prior lender was Series 2012-C4 which held debt that had an original loan amount of $25.5 million. The property has 79,814 square feet of built space and 4,194 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 83,892 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $313 and the price per buildable square foot is $298 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 Muss Development was Joshua L. Muss. The signatory for Lincoln Life & Annuity Company of New York was Frankie T. Jones Jr..

Prior sales and revenue

The 79,814-square-foot property generated revenue of $5 million or $62 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 70-00 Austin Street parcel has frontage of 411 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 41,946 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R5D which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $24.5 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $1,775 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 $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Forest Hills, the majority, or 62 percent of the 15 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 12 percent of the space. In sales, Forest Hills has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $109.8 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Forest Hills has 1.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 8th highest in Queens. It had 1.2 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.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 16 of the 30 commercial properties representing 346,681 square feet of the 575,241 square feet. The largest owner is Triumph Real Estate Management, followed by Michael Meyer and then Ilysa Mikhailov. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 33 percent of the 534,164 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Muss Development owned at least four commercial properties in New York City with 623,088 square feet and a city-determined market value of $120 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $83.7 million in debt, with top three lenders as Bank of America, MetLife, and Signature Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 84 percent of the 623,088 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 14 percent of the space. The bulk, or 58 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Brooklyn next at 42 percent of the space.

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