Zhongyin Lyu, Jianfei Chen submit 150-unit Flushing condo plan, no sellout price disclosed

Developers Zhongyin Lyu and Jianfei Chen submitted a 150-unit condominium plan for their ground-up hotel and residential construction project Vita Condominium at 133-25 37th Avenue, in Flushing, Queens, but no sellout price was disclosed as of publication. The entire project has 150 residential units and 202 hotel units, according to the Department of Buildings plans, and secures an $81 million loan Madison Realty Capital provided in March 2022.

On the tax lot, Zhongyin Lyu and Jianfei Chen filed the condominium plan through the entity 37 Ave Richouse LLC to create 150 residential units and five commercial units in the building at 133-25 37th Avenue in Flushing, Queens, called Vita Condominium, according to a November 15, 2023 submission to the New York State Attorney General. The principals of the sponsor, 37 Ave Richouse LLC, were Jianfei Chen and Zhongyin Lyu.

Jianfei Chen submitted a new building construction project with the New York City Department of Building for a 150-unit, 204,163 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 133-25 37th Avenue. Of that total square feet, 100,858 square feet is for the residential units and 102,713 is for the 202 hotel units. The plan was filed on June 9, 2021. It calls for the construction of a 167-foot tall, 16-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number Q00523537. The architect is Fxcollaborative. The project is described in the filing as: construct new 16-story mixed use building: commercial (retail, hotel), community facility, and residential uses.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 95 feet and is 230 feet deep with a total lot size of 37,421 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-2 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 2.43 times FAR for residential. The most recent loan totaled $81 million and was provided by Madison Realty Capital on March 30, 2022.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold with another property by Yihai Group for $58.5 million to Jianfei Chen on February 20, 2020.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received six DOB violations, $16,310 in ECB penalties in the last year.

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

The neighborhood

In Flushing, The bulk, or 45 percent of the 37.7 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space. In sales, Flushing has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $760.8 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 3rd highest in Queens. For development, Flushing has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 5th highest in Queens. It had 2 million 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. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other development buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the nine commercial properties representing 25,987 square feet of the 137,618 square feet. The largest owner is Fsa Capital, followed by Jianfei Chen and then Zhongyin Lyu. On the tax block, there were five new building construction projects totaling 703,275 square feet. The largest is a 150-unit, 204,163 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Jianfei Chen and filed by Jianfei Chen with plans filed June 9, 2021 and permitted April 11, 2022. The second largest is a 506-unit, 204,123 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Yihai Group and filed by Junda Chen with plans filed August 7, 2018 and it has not been permitted yet.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 133-22 36 Road, PincusCo identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those five items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $50.2 million. The most recent of the two was FSA Capital which bought the 25,987-square-foot, five-unit retail building (K1) on 36-35 College Point Blvd and one other property for $14.2 million from Wilson Ko on November 4, 2022. Of those five items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $70.8 million. The most recent of the three was Tangram Hotel LLC in which borrowed $50 million from Shanghai Commercial Bank Ltd., New York Branch secured by one condo unit in the 109,805-square-foot, 266-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 133-36 37th Avenue on April 5, 2023.

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