Textile firm pays $9.8M to Dan Zhong for office in Penn Plaza

An affiliate of a family that owns the home furnishings textile firm Estex Home Fashions,  JSI 304 LLC, by the signature of company president Jack Yakup Imir, paid $9.8 million to Dan Zhong through the entity The Development Group Of NYP, LLC for the office building (O6) at 304 Fifth Avenue in Penn Plaza, Manhattan. The expected use is owner-occupied.
The deal closed on May 15, 2025 and was recorded on May 20, 2025. The property has 25,480 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $382 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 seller bought the property on March 18, 2010, for $6.2 million. The signatory for Dan Zhong was Brad B. Glassman . The signatory for Yakup Imir was Yakup Imir. The contract date was May 15, 2025. According to federal court case, “Dan Zhong served as an accredited diplomat of the People’s Republic of China from 2001 to 2009. During that time, he held a management-level position at a Chinese construction and real estate company named Rilin, which was owned and operated by his uncle, Wenlaing Wang. Rilin employed many of Zhong’s family members in executive-level positions. In November 2009, Zhong ended his diplomatic status and became the official head of Rilin’s operations in the United States.”  Yakup Imir is president of the family-owned Estex Home Fashions.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Yakup Imir had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Dan Zhong had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 25,480-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.2 million or $48 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The office building with 1 residential unit in Penn Plaza has 25,480 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 20 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,000 square feet. The zoning is C5-2 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.9 million.

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 $1,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on February 27, 2017. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Penn Plaza, The majority, or 76 percent of the 20.4 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space. In sales, Penn Plaza has 1.3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $347.6 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 24th highest in Manhattan. For development, Penn Plaza has 3.4 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 8th highest in Manhattan. It had 4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 20 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 15 of the 28 commercial properties representing 1,519,759 square feet of the 1,746,232 square feet. The largest owner is Global Holdings Group, followed by Rosen Equities and then Capstone Equities.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 59,149 square feet. It is a 27-unit, 59,149 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Cottonwood Management and filed by Alex Shing with plans filed June 28, 2017 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 79 percent of the 1.7 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Yakup Imir owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 78,277 square feet and a city-determined market value of $6.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $20 million in debt, borrowed from Provident Bank and TD Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 98 percent of the 78,277 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with retail properties next occupying 2 percent of the space. The bulk, or 98 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 2 percent of the space.

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