United Construction & Development files plans for 217-unit project in LIC

Jiashu Xu of United Construction & Development Group through the entity GS Tower LLC submitted a new building construction project for a 217-unit, 152,794 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 24-03 43rd Avenue in Long Island City, Queens. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on August 7, 2023 under job number Q00875373. It calls for the construction of a 14-story building. The project is described in the filing as: new building 14-story mixed use building. The architect is My Architect PC.

United Construction & Development Group has filed at least three plans since January 2022 with nearly 700,000 square feet.

The property

The industrial building in Long Island City has 76,000 square feet of built space and 60,788 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 136,864 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 150 feet and is 140 feet deep with a total lot size of 18,200 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-5/R9 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 7.52 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.8 million. The most recent loan totaled 0.0 and was provided by iCross Capital on January 26, 2023.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold with another property by Avrohom Becker for $40.1 million to United Construction & Development Group on January 26, 2022.

The 76,000-square-foot property generated revenue of $790,529 or $10 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received 40 DOB violations and $3,850 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 Long Island City, The bulk, or 32 percent of the 60.1 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space. In sales, Long Island City has the 8th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.9 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Long Island City is the 4th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 8.3 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 two of the seven commercial properties representing 76,000 square feet of the 90,000 square feet. The identified owner is United Construction & Development Group. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 152,794 square feet. It is a 217-unit, 152,794 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Jiashu Xu with plans filed August 7, 2023 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that United Construction & Development Group owned at least 16 commercial properties with 317 residential units in New York City with 923,641 square feet and a city-determined market value of $79.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $485.9 million in debt, with top three lenders as Bank of China, Centennial Bank, and Maxim Capital Group respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 45 percent of the 923,641 square feet of built space are O8 properties, with elevator properties next occupying 33 percent of the space. They are all located in Queens.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 42-51 24 Street, PincusCo identified seven commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those seven items, three were sales above $5 million totaling $236 million. The most recent of the three was NYC School Construction Authority and NYC Department of Education which bought the 97,650-square-foot, one-unit office building (O2) on 23-10 43rd Avenue for $50 million from Stawski Partners on April 10, 2023. Of those seven items, four were loans above $5 million totaling $621 million. The most recent of the four was Weitao Shi and Yong Chen in which borrowed $6 million from Ponce Bank secured by the 4,405-square-foot, two-unit industrial (G2) on 43-05 Crescent Street on March 29, 2023.

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