RJ Capital signs $53M refi for 74-unit elevator building in Forest Hills

RJ Capital Holdings through the entity DE Boulevard LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Deutsche Bank valued at $53 million for the 74-unit residential elevator building at 107-02 Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills, Queens.
The deal closed on March 17, 2022 and was recorded on March 28, 2022. The prior lender was CIT Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $53 million. The property has 142,640 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $371 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 June 22, 2016, for $21.1 million. The signatory for RJ Capital Holdings was Rudolf Abramov. The signatory for Deutsche Bank was Jon Tilli.

Prior sales and revenue

The 142,640-square-foot property generated revenue of $4.5 million or $32 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 107-02 Queens Boulevard parcel has frontage of 162 feet and is 121 feet deep with a total lot size of 17,090 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-5X which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 5 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $14.6 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was not involved in any lawsuits or bankruptcies in the past years. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $2,600 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

On these lots, there was one active new building construction project for this building, the 74-unit, 84,698-square-foot R-2 building. The project was developed by Rudolf Abramov with plans filed March 1, 2018 and permitted September 12, 2019.

The neighborhood

In Forest Hills, the majority, or 58 percent of the 43.3 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with 1-4 family buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space. In sales, Forest Hills has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $99.6 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Forest Hills has 1.9 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 6th highest in Queens. It had 1.8 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the 13 commercial properties representing 9,380 square feet of the 197,985 square feet. The identified owner is Yeheskel Elias.

The majority, or 71 percent of the 201,480 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 16 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that RJ Capital Holdings owned at least seven commercial properties with 198,757 square feet and a city-determined market value of $41 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $79.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as TD Bank, Madison Realty Capital, and Bank Leumi respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 48 percent of the 198,757 square feet of built space are retail properties, with specialty properties next occupying 36 percent of the space. The bulk, or 54 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 38 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 107-02 Queens Boulevard, Pincusco identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those five items, five were loans above $5 million totaling $63.9 million. The most recent of the five was Crescent Properties which borrowed $12.5 million from OceanFirst Bank secured by the 5,596-square-foot, six-unit retail building (K1) on 107-18 70th Road and one other property on October 28, 2021.

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