United Construction & Development signs $27.5M refi for parcel in Long Island City

United Construction & Development Group through the entity LIC Venture Capital LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender New Era Life Insurance valued at $27.5 million for the development site (V1) at 41-50 21st Street in Long Island City, Queens.
The deal closed on January 12, 2024 and was recorded on February 26, 2024. The prior lender was Berkshire Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $11 million.The property has zero square feet of built space and 218,500 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 218,500 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per buildable square foot is $125 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 March 7, 2008, for $2 million. The signatory for United Construction & Development Group was Jiashu Xu. The signatory for New Era Life Insurance was Bill S. Chen.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 196 feet and is 211 feet deep with a total lot size of 43,700 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-5 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $7.8 million. The most recent loan totaled $11 million and was provided by Berkshire Bank on September 1, 2021.

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 $1,050 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

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 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 $1.5 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Long Island City is the 5th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 7.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 12 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the six commercial properties representing 94,171 square feet of the 371,772 square feet. The two identified owners are United Construction & Development Group and Kaushik Patel.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 89 percent of the 371,772 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 11 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that United Construction & Development Group owned at least 18 commercial properties with 317 residential units in New York City with 999,508 square feet and a city-determined market value of $98.2 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $550 million in debt, with top three lenders as Bank of China, Centennial Bank, and Maxim Capital Group respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 42 percent of the 999,508 square feet of built space are O8 properties, with elevator properties next occupying 30 percent of the space. They are all located in Queens.

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