Palwinder Singh pays $3.4M for 21-unit Astoria dev site that was being foreclosed

UPDATED, 7:30 a.m., September 24, 2024: Developer Palwinder Singh and Aditya Shah paid $3.4 million for a development site at 36-31 31st Street in Astoria, Queens, that has approved plans for a 21-unit development project. The property was the subject of a pre-foreclosure action Prime Capital Funding brought in March 2024 (705167/2024), alleging a 2020 construction loan with an outstanding principal of $917,108 was in default. That case remains open.

The deal closed on August 8, 2024 and was recorded on September 23, 2024. The property has zero square feet of built space and 17,214 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 17,214 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $N/A and the price per buildable square foot is $197 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 Debra Deow-Kalladeen was Debra Deow-Kalladeen. The signatory for Palwinder Singh was Palwinder Singh. The contract date was May 17, 2024.

The former developers, Debra Deow-Kalladeen and Faye Levesque through the entity Drbla Deow Inc. submitted a new building construction project for a 21-unit, 21,383 square-foot residential (R-2) building on September 8, 2015. It called for the construction of a 75-foot tall, seven-story, mixed-use building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number 421208641. The city approved the plans but has not yet permitted the plans, according to a review of city records.

Landair Property Advisors, led by partners Alexandre Goulet and Anand Melwani, was the broker on the transaction representing both buy and sell side.

Singh is also nearing completion on a 49-unit building at in 88-11 179th Place in Jamaica, Queens. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on December 27, 2018 under job number 421718485 and permitted on June 2, 2022.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 114 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,737 square feet. The zoning is M1-2/R6A which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 3 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $844,000.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, $3,560 in ECB penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Long Island City, The bulk, or 32 percent of the 60.2 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 the 8th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Long Island City is the 8th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 9 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other development buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 18 commercial properties representing 50,241 square feet of the 96,065 square feet. The largest owner is Debra Deow-Kalladeen, followed by Green Design Construct and then Gulraiz Masood. On the tax block, there were five new building construction projects totaling 86,827 square feet. The largest is a 40-unit, 34,376 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Ellen Senisi and filed by Ellen Senisi with plans filed August 29, 2019 and permitted May 7, 2021. The second largest is a 21-unit, 21,383 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Faye Levesque with plans filed September 8, 2015 and it has not been permitted yet.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 36-31 31 Street, PincusCo identified one commercial real estate item of interests occurred over the past 24 months. It was a loan which Alma Realty borrowed $122.2 million from Deutsche Bank secured by the 0-square-foot, one-unit office building (O2) on 36-46 33rd Street and one other property on July 29, 2024.
Updated with recording date and corrected contract date.

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