New Empire Corp. pays $16.2M for two properties in Woodside

New Empire Corp. through the entity 5801 Management LLC paid $16.2 million to Carol Wolfe through the entity 44-01 58 St LLC for retail building (K1) at 58-01 Queens Boulevard in Woodside, Queens and industrial building (G7) at 44-01 58th Street in Woodside, Queens.

The Real Deal reported in June that New Empire plans to build a 120-unit condominium at the site.
The deal closed on June 17, 2022 and was recorded on July 25, 2022. The two properties have 8,400 square feet of built space and 86,243 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 94,620 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,928 and the price per buildable square foot is $171 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 Carol Wolfe was Carol Wolfe. The signatory for New Empire Corp. was Bentley Zhao. The property had been owned by the late Pearl Meyer, who died in 2011. Carol Wolfe is Meyer’s niece, according to a NY Times obituary.

To finance the purchase, New Empire Corp. through the entity 5801 Management LLC as borrower signed an acquisition loan with lender Stearns Bank valued at $8.1 million for two properties including the retail building (K1) at 58-01 Queens Boulevard in Woodside, Queens and industrial building (G7) at 44-01 58th Street in Woodside, Queens.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 58-01 Queens Boulevard.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer New Empire Corp. purchased six properties in three transactions for a total of $44.3 million and sold one properties in one transactions for a total of $3.1 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Carol Wolfe had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. Out of the two properties, one with a total of 8,400 square feet of built space generated revenue of $405,025 per year.

The property

The 58-01 Queens Boulevard parcel has frontage of 175 feet and is 105 feet deep with a total lot size of 16,424 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R7X which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.8 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received $250 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 Woodside, the bulk, or 27 percent of the 12.1 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space. In sales, Woodside has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $154.9 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Woodside has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 336,865 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 58-01 Queens Boulevard, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the five commercial properties representing 102,758 square feet of the 181,222 square feet. The identified owner is Kahen Properties. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 93 percent of the 181,222 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 7 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that New Empire Corp. owned at least nine commercial properties in New York City with 301,439 square feet and a city-determined market value of $55.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $295.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as Fortress Investment Group, Popular Bank, and Axos Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 94 percent of the 301,439 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with specialty properties next occupying 6 percent of the space. The bulk, or 58 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 36 percent of the space.

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