Sep 15, 2022

Carmel Partners’ Ron Zeff and a rendering of the LIC project (Getty Images, Carmel Partners, Privcap) Ron Zeff’s Carmel Partners landed a big loan for its planned 66-story residential tower in Long Island City. The San Francisco-based developer secured $364.8 million from Wells Fargo for its development site at 43-30 and 43-16 24th Street in Queens, according to property records filed Wednesday. Carmel purchased the Court Square site from Stawski Partners in March for $200 million , the second-highest amount ever paid for a development site in Queens. Only TF Cornerstone’s $285 million acquisition in 2018 of a site in the Hunter’s Point area was pricier. It was expected at the time of the acquisition that Carmel would construct a 900-unit apartment building on the site. The development site qualified for the since-expired 421a tax abatement. Read more It wasn’t immediately clear if Carmel’s plans for the site have changed since March. The developer did not immediately comment Wednesday. Stawski, which had begun assembling the development site in 1994, filed plans in 2016 for a 66-story residential tower spanning more than 850,000 square feet. The site is right at the edge of the Court Square area that was part of a rezoning in 2001 to allow for skyscrapers. The rezoning did not allow for buildings higher than five stories to the west of the tower, preserving its expected Manhattan views. Carmel has been busy elsewhere in the city. It acquired a development site on the Upper East Side in January for $74 million . The developer filed plans to demolish the buildings at 1487 First Avenue and 356 East 78th Street to make way for a 24-story, 209,000-square-foot project. It would consist of 94 residential units and more than 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. Contact Pat Ralph