Terence Cheng submits plan for 21-unit condo with $31.8M sellout

Terence Cheng and Mengfei Song through the entity Forever 99 Holdings LLC submitted a condominium plan to create 21 residential units and 4 commercial units in a building at 150-23 Barclay Avenue in Murray Hill, Queens. The project is called Murray Hill Condominium and it has a $31.8 million sellout, according to a March 31, 2023 submission to the New York State Attorney General. The principals of the sponsor, Forever 99 Holdings LLC, were Terence Cheng and Mengfei Song.

The condo plan is for a new construction building. Michael Cheng submitted a new building construction plan for a 21-unit, 25,510 square-foot residential (R-2) building for the parcel May 17, 2019 under job number 421949734 which was permitted on March 10, 2021. It called for the construction of a five-story building. The project is described in the filing as: proposed a 5-story mixed use building.

The property

The elevator building with 21 residential units in Murray Hill (QN) has 25,470 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 39 feet and is 125 feet deep with a total lot size of 6,499 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R5 which allows for up to 1.25 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $650,000. The most recent loan totaled $9.7 million and was provided by Cathay Bank on September 30, 2021.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold with another property for $4.7 million on December 6, 2017.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, $9,375 in ECB penalties, and $9,425 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Murray Hill, Queens, the bulk, or 32 percent of the 4.7 million square feet of commercial built space are mixed-use buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space. In sales, Murray Hill (QN) has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $84.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 24th highest in Queens. For development, Murray Hill (QN) has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 32nd highest in Queens. It had 109,194 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the 12 commercial properties representing 25,473 square feet of the 59,568 square feet. The two identified owners are LIRR and Terence T. Cheng. On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 59,775 square feet. The largest is a 21-unit, 25,510 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Michael Cheng and filed by Michael Cheng with plans filed May 17, 2019 and permitted March 10, 2021. The second largest is a 10-unit, 19,291 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Meiyun Chen with plans filed April 12, 2021 and permitted October 12, 2021.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Terence T. Cheng owned at least two commercial properties with 31 residential units in New York City with 25,473 square feet. The portfolio has $9.7 million in debt, borrowed from Cathay Bank. Within the portfolio, all identified are elevator properties. They are all located in Queens.

The surrounding

This is the first commercial real estate event of interest identified within the 400-foot radius of 150-21 Barclay Avenue in the past 24 months.

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