Wade Guowei Li pays $3.7M to Martin Choy for mixed-use in Chinatown

Wade Guowei Li through the entity United 17 Division LLC paid $3.7 million to Martin Choy through the entity Belttech At Division, LLC for the mixed-use building (K4) at 17 Division Street in Chinatown, Manhattan.
The deal closed on February 2, 2023 and was recorded on February 17, 2023. The property has 4,875 square feet of built space and 1,158 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 6,040 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $758 and the price per buildable square foot is $612 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 Martin Choy was Martin Choy. The signatory for Wade Guowei Li was Wade Guowei Li.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has records that the buyer Wade Guowei Li purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $1.9 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Martin Choy had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 4,875-square-foot property generated revenue of $189,757 or $39 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 17 Division Street parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 70 feet deep with a total lot size of 1,756 square feet. The lot is irregular. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $801,000.

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 received $200 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 $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Chinatown, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 8.5 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space. In sales, Chinatown has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $158.6 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Chinatown has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 449,871 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 59 commercial properties representing 40,026 square feet of the 448,345 square feet. The two identified owners are Raber Enterprises and David Cheng.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 41 percent of the 434,757 square feet of built space are mixed-use buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Wade Guowei Li owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 5,180 square feet and a city-determined market value of $592,000. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single mixed-use property. It is located in Queens.

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