W&L Group signs $58.5M construction loan with Preferred Bank for 80-unit project in Chinatown

W&L Group through the entity NYC Henry Street Group LLC as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender Preferred Bank valued at $58.5 million for two properties comprising a development site including the midblock development building at 49 Henry Street in Chinatown, Manhattan and midblock industrial building at 47 Henry Street in Chinatown, Manhattan.
The deal closed on April 28, 2022 and was recorded on May 11, 2022. The prior lender was Preferred Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $17.5 million.The two properties have zero square feet of built space and 58,480 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 58,480 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data.
The signatory for W&L Group was Ting King Cheng. The signatory for Preferred Bank was Sylvia Tseng. W&L Group is led by Thomas Wu. The signatory for the zoning lot description was Mang Hua Wang.

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 49 Henry Street.

The property

The 49 Henry Street parcel has frontage of 150 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 14,500 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.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received $2,500 in ECB penalties and $2,600 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

On these lots, there is one active new building construction project for a 80-unit, 97,700-square-foot R-2 building. The project was developed by Thomas Wang with plans filed May 29, 2019 and permitted March 31, 2022.

The neighborhood

In Chinatown, the bulk, or 33 percent of the 9 million square feet of commercial built space are residential walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 16 percent of the space. In sales, Chinatown has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $109.6 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 261,484 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 the tax block of 49 Henry Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 87 commercial properties representing 78,563 square feet of the 401,184 square feet. The largest owner is Yi K. Lam, followed by Conway Capital and then Danny Wong. There are three active new building construction projects totaling 135,543 square feet. The largest is a 80-unit, 97,700-square-foot R-2 building developed by Thomas Wang with plans filed May 29, 2019 and permitted March 31, 2022. The second largest is a 19,412-square-foot office (B) building developed by Andy Mak with plans filed May 31, 2013 and permitted May 8, 2015.

The majority, or 42 percent of the 404,585 square feet of built space are residential walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that W&L Group owned at least two commercial properties with 290,970 square feet and a city-determined market value of $15.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $63 million in debt, borrowed from Royal Business Bank and Berkshire Bank. Within the portfolio, all identified are hotel properties. The bulk, or 90 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Manhattan next at 10 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 49 Henry Street, Pincusco identified three commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those three items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $24.1 million. The most recent of the three was Yi K. Lam which borrowed $8 million from Cathay Bank secured by the 21,302-square-foot, 33-unit office building (O5) on 39 East Broadway on July 27, 2021.

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