Peter Rebenwurzel of Coney Realty Group as seller signed a contract with the Boston-based affordable developer The Community Builders as buyer to sell a portion of the parcel 29-32 Beach Channel Drive, in Far Rockaway, Queens. The buyer will develop a new building with 120 affordable units and community space, according to a Land Use Application filed August 31 with the Department of City Planning.

The parcel will be divided into two tax lots, and Community Builders will buy the new lot. The developer is also constructing an affordable apartment building nearby at 1047 Beach 21 Street with 224 units.

The 29-44 Beach Channel Drive parcel has frontage of 295 feet and is 133 feet deep with a total lot size of 58,700 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R4-1 which allows for up to 0.75 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the entire property in 2022 is $4.2 million.The most recent loan totaled $15.8 million and was provided by Signature Bank on November 9, 2020.

The existing elevator building at 29-44 Beach Channel Drive has 107 residential units and 111,102 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The property is owned by Coney Realty Group.

According to the application: “The Development Site is located in an R4-1 zoning district in Community Board 14 in Far Rockaway. The Applicant proposes to rezone the Development Site and Tax Lots 1 and 18 which are adjacent to the Development Site (collectively, the “Project Area” or “Rezoning Area”) from R4- 1 to R6A (the “Rezoning”). The Applicant also seeks to amend Appendix F of the Zoning Resolution to map a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (“MIH”) Designated Area coterminous with the Project Area (the “Text Amendment”).
The Rezoning and the Text Amendment are, collectively, the “Proposed Actions.” The Application seeks these Proposed Actions to develop a 100% affordable housing project with a community facility use on the ground floor, exterior parking, and landscaping (the “Proposed Development”). The Development Site will be subdivided into two tax lots, the Proposed Development’s future tax lot portion and the Owner-retained portion of the Development Site which includes the Existing Building, defined below. The two tax lots will remain a single zoning lot.
The Proposed Development’s future tax lot will be purchased by the Applicant and it will continue to be a single zoning lot with the Owner-retained portion of the Development Site. Then, the Applicant intends to construct an eight story affordable multifamily building containing 90,985 square feet of zoning floor area (“ZFA”), including 106 dwelling units (88,994 ZFA) and a community facility (1,991 ZFA; all figures are approximate). The Rezoning is necessary to achieve this goal. The Project Area covers the most of the Development Site (except for a 5-foot sliver to the east), all of 29-64 Beach Channel Drive (“Lot 1”), and a 10-inch sliver of the western portion of 29-41 Ocean Crest Boulevard (“Lot 18”). Lot 1 and Lot 18 are “Non-Applicant Owned Sites.” The Proposed Actions will facilitate the development of the Development Site with the Proposed Development will further the City’s goal of providing additional affordable housing to help meet the current housing crisis.”

Property

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the two commercial properties representing 111,102 square feet of the 136,457 square feet. The identified owner is Coney Realty Group. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Coney Realty Group owned at least 51 commercial properties in New York City with 2,629,350 square feet and a city-determined market value of $166.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $67.7 million in debt, borrowed from Signature Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 76 percent of the 2,629,350 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 24 percent of the space. The bulk, or 87 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 9 percent of the space.

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Peter Rebenwurzel, head officer and Michael Haas, officer. The business entities are 2932 Bcd, Llc and 2932 Bcd, Llc.