Safe Harbor Equity buys $7M note secured by Astoria dev site

Safe Harbor Equity through the entity 3075 21st Street Lender LLC bought a note with an original principal of $7 million from Maxim Capital Group secured by Szilvia Barnett and Theodore P. Kasapis’s development (V1) at 30-75 21st Street in Astoria, Queens. Florida-based Safe Harbor Equity focuses on buying distressed commercial debt.

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 56-unit, 45,751 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Szilvia Barnett with plans filed December 2, 2021 and it has not been permitted yet.
The deal closed on July 14, 2023 and was recorded on August 9, 2023. The prior lender was Maxim Capital Group which held debt that had an original loan amount of $7 million.The property has zero square feet of built space and 39,996 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 39,996 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $N/A and the price per buildable square foot is $zero 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 October 28, 2020, for $13 million. The signatory for Szilvia Barnett and Theodore P. Kasapis was Szilvia Barnett and Theodore P. Kasapis. The signatory for Safe Harbor Equity was Lauro Rafael Serrano. Safe Harbor Equity bought the debt from Maxim Capital Group, which lent an undisclosed amount of money to Safe Harbor for Safe Harbor to buy the debt.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,999 square feet. The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $360,000. The most recent loan totaled $5 million and was provided by Maxim Credit Group on January 20, 2022.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received three DOB violations and $6,050 in OATH penalties in the last year.

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 3.1 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 3.2 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 four of the 10 commercial properties representing 11,846 square feet of the 48,321 square feet. The largest owner is Theodore P. Kasapis, followed by Sunlight Development Group and then Jack Dilluvio.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 69,024 square feet. The largest is a 56-unit, 45,751 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Szilvia Barnett with plans filed December 2, 2021 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 34-unit, 23,273 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Michael Lagoudis with plans filed October 23, 2018 and permitted October 8, 2021.

The majority, or 34 percent of the 48,321 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 34 percent of the space.

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