Development plummeted this year, but sector still shows signs of life

NEW YORK—Lev Kimyagarov and Rubin Isak, former senior directors at Massey Knakal Realty Services/Cushman & Wakefield and Eastern Consolidated respectively, have Development Site Advisors, the only firm in New York City with a sole focus on the development site sector.

“During our many years of working in the commercial real estate industry, we came to realize that there was a true void in the development site sector,” notes firm Managing Principal and Co-Founder Lev Kimyagarov.

“Development sites are a very complex asset class, with each site having several potential development scenarios and each scenario affecting value differently. But most brokers don’t evaluate development sites correctly, primarily because of their lack of neighborhood-specific zoning knowledge. That’s why our tagline is ‘We Know Zoning.’”

Development Site Advisors has already sold the famed Shalimar Diner site, a 14,000-squarre-foot corner lot in Rego Park, Queens.

It has also represented the purchaser of the famous Neptune Diner in Astoria (Queens), on a 10,000-square-foot. corner lot; a former gas station in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn on a 9,000-square-foot corner lot; a former corner 6,100-square-foot gas station on Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst; air rights for the Grace Lutheran Church in Astoria, which will use those funds to build a gym for their students; a 1.88-acre site in Glen Cove, Long Island; and a corner lot in Woodside, Queens, that will contain a charter school.

Development Site Advisors reports it is currently working on:

• a complex assemblage on W 35th Street, off Fifth Avenue, in an M1-6 zone located one block north of the Empire State Building,

• a blockfront 150,000 buildable-square-foot site in Inwood on West 219th Street that is under contract,

• a corner 10,000-square-foot lot in northern Manhattan on 10th Avenue that is under contract,

• a five-lot assemblage in East New York, where the owner is placing a charter school, and

• a corner 9,500-square-foot lot on Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside in a Voluntary Inclusionary Housing Zone.

“We have expansion plans in the works at other urban cities with complex zoning codes, where we know that we can add value,” says Kimyagarov. “Our niche focus, unique business model, process in place and targeted agent training assures that we can plant our flag in virtually any city and make an impact, truly providing value to our clients. We look forward to announcing our next city as we roll it out.”

“In real estate there are two buckets, Commercial Real Estate and Residential Real Estate,” adds Isak. “Development falls in the Commercial Real Estate bucket. We will be changing that, by creating an entirely new sector.