United Construction pays $103.8M to Young Nian Group for dev site in Flushing

United Construction & Development Group through the entity Flushing Waterfront LLC paid $103.8 million to Young Nian Group for the development site at 131-01 39th Avenue in Flushing, Queens.
The deal closed on April 14, 2022 and was recorded on May 4, 2022. The property has zero square feet of built space and 338,688 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 338,688 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $306 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 October 24, 2017, for $115 million. The signatory for Young Nian Group was Yong Ma. The signatory for United Construction & Development Group was Chris Jiashu Xu. The Real Deal first reported that Young Nian Group sold the development site.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has records that the buyer United Construction & Development Group purchased six properties in five transactions for a total of $66.2 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Young Nian Group had not purchased any other properties.

The property

The 131-01 39th Avenue parcel has frontage of 181 feet and is 582 feet deep with a total lot size of 139,378 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-2 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 2.43 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $10.5 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

On these lots, there are two active new building construction projects and major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million, totaling 722,628 square feet. The largest is a new building project for a 368-unit, 664,279-square-foot R-2 building developed by John Liang with plans filed November 12, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a new building project for a 58,349-square-foot M building developed by Wang Fan with plans filed March 7, 2016 and it has not been permitted yet.

The neighborhood

In Flushing, the bulk, or 39 percent of the 78.7 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with 1-4 family buildings next occupying 29 percent of the space. In sales, Flushing has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $312.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 4th highest in Queens. For development, Flushing has 2.9 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 5th highest in Queens. It had 2.6 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 12 commercial properties representing 2,800 square feet of the 142,915 square feet. The two identified owners are United Construction & Development Group and F&T Group. There are two active new building construction projects totaling 722,628 square feet. The largest is a 368-unit, 664,279-square-foot R-2 building developed by John Liang with plans filed November 12, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 89 percent of the 142,915 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 9 percent of the space.

The buyer

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 $66.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $298.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as Bank of China, Centennial Bank, and Bank Leumi 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

PincusCo has not identified any commercial real estate items of interest within a 400-foot radius of 131-01 39th Avenue that occurred over the past 24 months.

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