Nonprofit pays $5.5M to Daniel Group for retail in Astoria

The nonprofit Urban Upbound through the entity East River Development Alliance, Inc. paid $5.5 million to the Daniel Group through the entity 31 Stein LLC for the retail building (K2) at 31-35 Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens. The former lender, Kearny Bank, filed a pre-foreclosure action in August 2021, but the parties settled that case quickly a few months later in May 2022.
The sale closed on April 17, 2023 and was recorded on April 27, 2023. The property has 9,000 square feet of built space and 4,500 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 13,500 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $608 and the price per buildable square foot is $405 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 seller bought the property on October 14, 2010, for $6.5 million. The signatory for Daniel Group was Bruce H. Lederman. Ilan Cohen of Daniel Group signed for a 2016 loan. The buyer is an affiliate of the nonprofit Urban Upbound, which has a mission according to its website to, “to break cycles of poverty in New York City public housing and other low-income neighborhoods.”

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Urban Upbound had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Daniel Group purchased 13 properties in three transactions for a total of $13.8 million and sold three properties in three transactions for a total of $14.1 million over the same time period. The 9,000-square-foot property generated revenue of $525,397 or $58 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The retail building in Astoria has 9,000 square feet of built space and 4,500 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 13,500 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 90 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,500 square feet. The zoning is C4-2A which allows for up to 3 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 3 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.4 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $5.2 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan filed on August 24, 2021, by Kearny Bank against Ilan Cohen. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $100 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 $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Astoria, The bulk, or 36 percent of the 40.2 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space. In sales, Astoria has 3.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 2nd highest in Queens. For development, Astoria has 3.1 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 4th highest in Queens. It had 3.2 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 13 of the 41 commercial properties representing 74,309 square feet of the 233,456 square feet. The largest owner is Wharton Properties, followed by Solil Management and then Sol Goldman Investments.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 1,479 square feet. It is a two-unit, 1,479 square-foot residential (R-3) building submitted by Anthony Varikos with plans filed May 4, 2017 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 37 percent of the 233,456 square feet of built space are mixed-use buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Daniel Group owned at least 35 commercial properties with 343 residential units in New York City with 333,779 square feet. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 53 percent of the 333,779 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 30 percent of the space. The bulk, or 35 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Brooklyn next at 32 percent of the space.

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