Urban Builders Collaborative pays $14M to long-time owner for LIC dev site

Urban Builders Collaborative, an affiliate of Lettire Construction, through the entity UBC Lic LLC paid $14 million to Roxter Lighting through the entity 10-11 40th Avenue Realty Corp. for the industrial building (F9) at 10-11 40th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens, industrial building (F1) at 38-78 11th Street in Long Island City, Queens, and 1-4 family building (A2) at 38-67 10th Street in Long Island City, Queens.
The deal closed on March 29, 2024 and was recorded on April 18, 2024. The three properties have 24,651 square feet of built space and 87,770 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 112,440 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $567 and the price per buildable square foot is $124 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 signatory for Roxter Lighting was Alan Hochster. The signatory for Urban Builders Collaborative was Matthew Gross. The contract date was September 28, 2023. The seller Roxter Lighting acquired the properties between 1957 and 1973.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 10-11 40th Avenue.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Urban Builders Collaborative had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Roxter Lighting had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The industrial building in Long Island City has 24,651 square feet of built space and 87,770 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 112,440 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 90 feet and is 99 feet deep with a total lot size of 8,639 square feet. The zoning is M1-3 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.2 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received five DOB violations 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 7th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Long Island City is the 7th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 6.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 10 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were three pre-foreclosure suit filed among other industrial buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 10-03 40th Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 31 commercial properties representing 198,408 square feet of the 347,119 square feet. The largest owner is John Venetis, followed by Jasmin Patel and then Hiu Ian Cheng.
On the tax block, there were seven new building construction projects totaling 217,041 square feet. The largest is a 181-unit, 53,606 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by McSam Hotel Group and filed by Chang Sam with plans filed August 6, 2015 and permitted May 30, 2018. The second largest is a 133-unit, 50,457 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Ian Cheng and filed by Ian Cheng with plans filed September 15, 2014 and permitted February 10, 2016.

The majority, or 70 percent of the 347,119 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link