United Construction & Dev. signs $30M construction loan for 66-unit LIC project

Chris Xu’s United Construction & Development Group through the entity 21st Street Development LLC as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender Bank Leumi valued at $30 million for the development at 46-30 21st Street in Long Island City, Queens. Xu filed plans for a 66-unit building in April 2021.

The deal closed on March 7, 2022 and was recorded on March 31, 2022. The prior lender was Maspeth Federal Savings and Loan Association which held debt that had an original loan amount of $6.5 million.

The property has 12,500 square feet of built space and 37,500 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 50,000 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data.
The owner bought the property on December 28, 2020, for $13 million. The signatory for United Construction & Development Group was Chris Jiashu Xu. The signatory for Bank Leumi was Victor Brown and Christopher Gregg. Jiashu Xu is the founder and president of United Construction & Development Group.

The property

The 46-30 21st Street parcel has frontage of 99 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 10,000 square feet. 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 $6.5 million and was provided by Maspeth Federal Savings and Loan Association on December 28, 2020.

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 $32,590 in ECB penalties in the last year.

Development

On these lots, there is one active new building construction project for a 66-unit building with plans filed April 10, 2021 and it has not been permitted yet.

The neighborhood

In Long Island City, the bulk, or 33 percent of the 66.2 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Long Island City has 4.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the highest in Queens. For development, Long Island City is the 2nd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 9.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 14 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the 16 commercial properties representing 45,894 square feet of the 138,374 square feet. The largest owner is SD Asset Management, followed by United Construction & Development Group and then Charles Lee.

The majority, or 51 percent of the 138,054 square feet of built space are office buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 41 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that United Construction & Development Group owned at least 10 commercial properties with 455,608 square feet and a city-determined market value of $72.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $245.9 million in debt, with top three lenders as Bank of China, Centennial Bank, and Bank Hapoalim respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 72 percent of the 455,608 square feet of built space are office properties, with industrial properties next occupying 24 percent of the space. They are all located in Queens.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 46-30 21st Street, PincusCo identified one commercial real estate item of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
It was a loan which SD Asset Management borrowed $30.5 million from Argentic Investment Management secured by the 16,947-square-foot, two-unit office building (O5) on 11-20 46th Road and one other property on October 28, 2019.

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