W&L Group files $129.8M condo plan at 80-unit Chinatown project

Flushing based-W&L Group submitted a condominium plan through the entity NYC Henry Street Group LLC to create 80 residential units and 21 commercial units in a building at 59 Henry Street in Chinatown, Manhattan, called 59 Henry Street Condominium that has a $129.8 million sellout, according to an June 14, 2024 submission to the New York State Attorney General. The principals of the sponsor, NYC Henry Street Group LLC, were Ting King Cheng and Ming Yee Kwok.

This condo submission follows a new building plan filed just over four years ago with the city’s Department off Buildings. W&L Group submitted a new building construction project for an 80-unit, 97,700 square-foot residential (R-2) building on May 29, 2019 under job number 121205365 which was permitted on March 28, 2022. It calls for the construction of a 19-story building.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 175 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 16,999 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R7-2 which allows for up to 3.44 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.8 million. The most recent loan totaled $58.5 million and was provided by Preferred Bank on April 28, 2022.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold with another property for $30 million on January 11, 2019.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received $27,500 in ECB penalties and $29,500 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Chinatown, The bulk, or 36 percent of the 8.4 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 near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $126.6 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 33rd highest in Manhattan. For development, Chinatown has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 34th highest in Manhattan. It had 404,060 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 12 of the 38 commercial properties representing 239,541 square feet of the 501,568 square feet. The largest owner is Carl Ka Che, followed by City Storage Systems and then Conway Capital. On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 134,862 square feet. The largest is a 80-unit, 97,700 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by W&L Group and filed by Thomas Wang with plans filed May 29, 2019 and permitted March 28, 2022. The second largest is a 19,412 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Andy Mak with plans filed May 31, 2013 and permitted March 13, 2015.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that W&L Group owned at least five commercial properties with 231 residential units in New York City with 718,786 square feet and a city-determined market value of $33.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $281.7 million in debt, with top three lenders as G4 Capital Partners, Preferred Bank, and Royal Business Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 60 percent of the 718,786 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with hotel properties next occupying 40 percent of the space. The bulk, or 41 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 37 percent of the space.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 49 Henry Street, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those four items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit issued on March 21, 2024 for the $749,000 renovation of 2,800-square-foot mercantile (M) building with zero residential units at 20 Henry Street. Of those four items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $12.7 million. The most recent of the two was Oleksandr Nad which bought the 7,556-square-foot, two-unit development site (M1) on 83 Madison Street for $5.2 million from Roman Catholic Church and Church of St. Joachim on December 6, 2023. One of those four items was a loan which Delshah Capital borrowed $70 million from Signature Bank secured by the 8,150-square-foot, 21-unit rental (C7) on 41 Henry Street and 27 other properties on November 1, 2022.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.