RJ Capital signs $18M refi with Valley National for development in Forest Hills

RJ Capital Holdings through the entity Pwh Gcp Land LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Valley National Bank through the entity Valley National Bank valued at $18 million for the development building (V1) at 70-28 Grand Central Parkway in Forest Hills, Queens.
The deal closed on July 12, 2022 and was recorded on August 1, 2022. The prior lender was Madison Realty Capital which held debt that had an original loan amount of $22.7 million. The property has zero square feet of built space and 161,910 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 161,910 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per buildable square foot is $111 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 owner bought the property on May 25, 2021, for $23.7 million. The signatory for RJ Capital Holdings was Rudolf Abramov. The signatory for Valley National Bank was Victor Brown and Efrat Harari.

The property

The 70-28 Grand Central Parkway parcel has frontage of 240 feet and is 139 feet deep with a total lot size of 32,382 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 $1.5 million.The most recent loan totaled $22.7 million and was provided by Madison Realty Capital on May 25, 2021.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations 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 Forest Hills, the majority, or 62 percent of the 15 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 12 percent of the space. In sales, Forest Hills has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $109.8 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Forest Hills has 1.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 8th highest in Queens. It had 1.2 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 two of the seven commercial properties representing 71,478 square feet of the 317,140 square feet. The two identified owners are SYU Properties and RJ Capital Holdings. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 80 percent of the 317,140 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that RJ Capital Holdings owned at least 11 commercial properties in New York City with 450,752 square feet and a city-determined market value of $96.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 32 percent of the 450,752 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with retail properties next occupying 22 percent of the space. The bulk, or 48 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Brooklyn next at 27 percent of the space.

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