New Empire Corp. submits $85.9M condo plan in Kips Bay

New Empire Corp. led by CEO Bentley Zhao submitted a condominium plan to create 59 residential units in a building at 429 Second Avenue in Kips Bay, Manhattan, called 429 2nd Avenue Condominium that has a $85.9 million sellout, according to an April 17, 2023 submission to the New York State Attorney General. The principal of the sponsor, NERE Kips Bay Management LLC, was Bentley Zhao, and the plan number was CD230102.

This project is a new construction development. New Empire Corp. submitted a new building construction project for a 59-unit, 44,571 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 429 Second Avenue at the corner of East 25th Street. The plan was filed on May 6, 2022 and permitted April 18, 2023. It calls for the construction of a 150-foot tall, 12-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number M00675715. The architect is Morali Architecture. The project is described in the filing as: construction of new 12-story residential building.

Bentley Zhao of New Empire has submitted at least seven condominium plans since 2018 with a total of 367 units. This plan, with 59 units, is the fourth largest and third in Manhattan.

The property

The zoning is C1-8A which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 7.52 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The most recent loan totaled $7.4 million and was provided by Popular Bank on August 24, 2021.

Prior sales and revenue

New Empire bought the property from Speiser Dabran Management for $14.8 million on August 24, 2021.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Kips Bay, The bulk, or 50 percent of the 21.5 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space. In sales, Kips Bay has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $815.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 17th highest in Manhattan. For development, Kips Bay has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 30th highest in Manhattan. It had 505,163 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 16 of the 24 commercial properties representing 180,860 square feet of the 314,322 square feet. The largest owner is Croman Real Estate, followed by David Israeli and then Lawrence Zombek. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 44,571 square feet. It is a 59-unit, 44,571 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by New Empire Corp. and filed by Bentley Zhao with plans filed May 6, 2022 and permitted April 18, 2023.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that New Empire Corp. owned at least 15 commercial properties with 298 residential units in New York City with 316,565. The portfolio has $319.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as Fortress Investment Group, Popular Bank, and Axos Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 76 percent of the 316,565 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 9 percent of the space. The bulk, or 81 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 16 percent of the space.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 431 2 Avenue, PincusCo identified one commercial real estate item of interests occurred over the past 24 months. It was a loan which Penny Lane Owners Corp. borrowed $15 million from National Cooperative Bank secured by the 144,942-square-foot, 180-unit co-op (D4) on 205 East 24th Street on December 15, 2021.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.