ZD Jasper files plans for new 43-unit building in LIC, replacing prior project

Jasper Wu, vice president of development firm ZD Jasper Realty through the entity 23-17 41 Ave Holding LLC, submitted a new building construction project for a 43-unit, 37,568 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 40-44 24th Street in Long Island City, Queens. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on November 2, 2022 under job number Q08029074. It calls for the construction of a six-story building. The project is described in the filing as: six-story mixed-use building with cellar. The architect is My Architect, PC.

An existing two-story partially completed expansion project filed in 2015 will be demolished, according to demolition plans Wu filed in September. The latest property records indicate Marijan Bernic is the owner, but ZD Jasper may have signed a contract to buy or lease, or may have closed a sale or lease but not yet recorded it. Slavko Bernic filed plans in 2015 to alter the building from a two-story warehouse to a six-story mixed-use building with 39 residential units. Those plans were permitted but have been superseded by the new ones.

The new plans call for the ground floor to have two units with wholesale sales and a residential lobby, seven apartments on the second floor as well as a recreation room and a terrace, 11 apartments each on floors three to five, and three apartments on the sixth floor.

ZD Jasper Realty, on August 1, 2022, filed a permit application for construction of a 52-unit, 48,138-square-foot mixed-use building at 439 West 36th Street in Hudson Yards, Manhattan. Tom Wu, founder of the firm, filed the plans.

The PincusCo database currently indicates that ZD Jasper Realty, based in Great Neck, Long Island, owned at least 12 commercial properties with 167,138 square feet, 70 residential units and a city-determined market value of $38.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 62 percent of the 167,138 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with industrial properties next occupying 38 percent of the space. The bulk, or 74 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Manhattan next at 26 percent of the space.

The property

The elevator building with 39 residential units in Long Island City has 49,462 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The property is owned by Marijan Bernic. The 40-44 24 Street parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 10,000 square feet. The zoning is M1-2/R6A which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 3 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2 million.

Development

Jasper Wu, vice president of ZD Jasper Realty submitted a new building construction project for a 43-unit, 37,568 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 40-44 24 Street. The plan was filed on November 2, 2022. It calls for the construction of a 72-foot tall, six-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number Q08029074. The architect is My Architect, Pc. The project is described in the filing as: 6 story mixed-use building with cellar.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

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

The neighborhood

In Long Island City, the bulk, or 34 percent of the 63.3 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 4th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 9.2 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.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 19 commercial properties representing 7,852 square feet of the 122,048 square feet. The two identified owners are Matthew Schwartz 30-01 and Rothna Begum. On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 55,045 square feet. The largest is a 43-unit, 37,568 square-foot residential (R-2) building developed by ZD Jasper Realty and submitted by Jasper Wu with plans filed November 2, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 14,967 square-foot assembly (A-3) building developed by Clifford Sawyer with plans filed August 17, 2018 and permitted June 10, 2020.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Marijan Bernic owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 49,462 square feet and a city-determined market value of $2 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single elevator property. It is located in Queens.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 40-44 24 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 $58.4 million. The most recent of the three was Yitzchok Schwartz which borrowed $29.2 million from Kearny Bank secured by the 59,237-square-foot, 71-unit rental (D3) on 41-15 23rd Street on July 18, 2022.

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