World-Wide Group President Victor Elmaleh and 41-50 24th Street
For the third time in less than seven years a residential development plot in Long Island City has traded hands, with the most recent buyer being Victor Elmaleh’s World-Wide Group.
World-Wide closed on the $28.85 million purchase of 41-50 24th Street, a 40,000-square-foot plot just north of the Queensboro Bridge entrance, from the Criterion Group late last month, according to public records published this week.
World-Wide has not finalized its plans for the vacant site, a spokesperson for the firm said, but it is zoned for a 320,000-square-foot residential building.
The site was purchased by an LLC called FCR Development in October 2005 for $23 million. The LLC is affiliated with Moshe Feller, who demolished a three-story building on the 24th Street site, according to the Department of Buildings’ website.
A source with knowledge of the property said a condominium was planned on the property, before the financial crisis hit and the parcel was sold again.
In 2008, Shibber Khan’s Criterion Group picked up the property for $27.52 million, public records indicate. Criterion, an active Western Queens developer, filed plans and obtained approval that same year for a 40-story Karl Fischer-designed residential tower with 416 units, 14,141 square feet of commercial space and 24 enclosed parking spaces.
According to Criterion’s website, the project was slated to be a rental building called CityGate with high-end amenities. Criterion did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The firm sold the building in a direct deal to World-Wide with no brokers involved, the source said. World-Wide, which took out a $4.5 million mortgage on the land, is also the developer behind the $750 million development rising at 250 East 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan that will include a Whole Foods, two new public schools and a 58-story residential building.
