W&L Group takes title to 36 condo units at bankrupt Victoria Towers in Flushing

W&L Group through the entity Viewpoint One LLC acquired 36 residential condominium units with a value of $37.5 million from Myint Kyaw’s bankrupt Victoria Towers Development Corp. at 133-38 Sanford Avenue in Flushing, Queens.
W&L Group was the contractor on the 99-unit condo project that has a current sellout price of $129.9 million. Myint Kyaw, who also uses the name Jeffrey Wu, submitted the condo plan, CD070129, in 2007. The project was buffeted by challenges including the global recession of 2008, Superstorm Sandy in 2012, and lawsuits and mechanic’s liens. Kyaw filed for personal bankruptcy in July 2020 8-20-72407-reg and then filed to place the sponsor entity of Victoria Towers into bankruptcy in October 2020. 8-20-73303-reg
This is not the first transfer of unsold units. On January 31, 2023, a creditor on the project, American Chengyi Investment Management Group, acquired 13 units that were part of the project through a $13.5 million credit bid.
The W&L acquisition also closed on January 31, 2023 and was recorded on March 6, 2023. The 36 properties have 39,434 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $950 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 W&L Group was Meng Hua Wang, an executive with the firm.

W&L Group financed the acquisition of the condo units with a $15.2 million loan from Preferred Bank.

The PincusCo database currently indicates that W&L Group owned at least five commercial properties with 539,356 square feet, 151 residential units and a city-determined market value of $29.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $266.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as G4 Capital Partners, Preferred Bank, and Royal Business Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 54 percent of the 539,356 square feet of built space are hotel properties, with elevator properties next occupying 46 percent of the space. The bulk, or 49 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Brooklyn next at 46 percent of the space.

Violations and lawsuits

There was at least one lawsuit and two bankruptcies filed against the properties in the last several years.

The block

On the tax block of 133-38 Sanford Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the 19 commercial properties representing 57,490 square feet of the 375,790 square feet. The largest owner is Anna Lo, followed by Gui Yang and then Xiang Yu Cao.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 455,366 square feet. The largest is a 45-unit, 338,165 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Yang Gui with plans filed January 31, 2014 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 56-unit, 117,201 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Elizabeth Chen with plans filed April 14, 2021 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 63 percent of the 339,912 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 33 percent of the space.

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