VOREA signs $23.5M construction loan with 360 Capital for LIC office development

VOREA Group through the entity Borden Avenue Opportunity Zone Business LLC as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender 360 Capital Funding through the entity DB 360 LLC valued at $23.5 million for the office development at 10-04 Borden Avenue in Long Island City, Queens.
On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 44,333 square-foot office (B) building. The project was submitted by VOREA with plans filed May 14, 2021.
The deal closed on January 6, 2023 and was recorded on January 17, 2023. The property has 500 square feet of built space and 47,302 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 47,780 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per buildable square foot is $491 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 VOREA Group was Peter Papamichael. The signatory for 360 Capital Funding was David N. Brooks.

The property

The 10-04 Borden Avenue parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 20 feet deep with a total lot size of 23,890 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M3-2 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.6 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.

The neighborhood

In Long Island City, the bulk, or 33 percent of the 62.1 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space. In sales, Long Island City has the 9th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.7 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 8.9 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. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other industrial buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the three commercial properties representing 15,000 square feet of the 15,500 square feet. The two identified owners are Long Island Rail Road and Anthony Colao.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 44,333 square feet. It is a 44,333-square-foot B building developed by VOREA with plans filed May 14, 2021 and permitted August 26, 2022.

The majority, or 100 percent of the 15,500 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 0 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Vorea Group owned at least seven commercial properties in New York City with 229,187 square feet and a city-determined market value of $16 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $279.1 million in debt, borrowed from Wells Fargo and ACRES Capital. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 72 percent of the 229,187 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with hotel properties next occupying 28 percent of the space. The bulk, or 79 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Brooklyn next at 21 percent of the space.

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