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

NEW YORK CITY—Lev Kimyagarov and Rubin Isak, former senior directors at Massey Knakal Realty Services/Cushman & Wakefield and Eastern Consolidated respectively, have launched Development Site Advisors. 

The new company’s sole focus is 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,” Kimyagarov says in prepared remarks.

He adds that 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.”

The company uses proprietary valuation tools as it examines the neighborhood, the specific zoning regulations for that area and site, as well as every possible development scenario with costs, Isak says in prepared remarks.

The company is launching with an activity pipeline. 

It has already sold the Shalimar Diner site, a 14,000-square foot corner lot in Rego Park, Queens.

It has also represented the purchaser of the Neptune Diner in Astoria 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.

Ongoing projects include:

• An 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 already under contract,
• A corner 10,000-sq. ft. lot in northern Manhattan on 10th Avenue that is also under contract,
• A five-lot assemblage in East New York, where the owner is placing a charter school, and
• A corner 9,500 sq. ft. lot on Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside in a Voluntary Inclusionary Housing Zone.

Development Site Advisors also has plans to expand to other cities, according to Kimyagarov.