Lightstone joins taxi company’s 10-story LIC project

Updated, 12:06 p.m., Nov. 26: The owner of a Long Island City yellow-cab company has brought on The Lightstone Group a joint venture partner to develop a 10-story mixed-use building in The Queens Plaza North neighborhood, The Real Deal has learned.

Theodore Strauel, owner of the Team Systems Corp. taxi company, filed an application with the buildings department today to construct a 10-story, 428-unit building on the southern end of a block-sized parking lot at 30-07 40th Avenue. The lot houses Team Systems’ fleet of cabs.

To develop the property, Strauel has brought on The Lightstone Group as a JV partner, a source told TRD.

Lightstone could not be immediately reached for comment.

David Junik and Decio Baio of Pinnacle Realty represented both sides of the transaction in an off-market deal, a separate source said.

Strauel could not be immediately reached and Pinnacle declined to comment.

The application calls for a total of 290,774 zoned square footage, some 3,200 square feet of which would be used for two ground-floor retail spaces.

The application indicates the building would rise on the southernmost portion of the roughly 80,000-square-foot lot between 40th and 39th Avenues.

Strauel has applied for a zoning permit that would allow him to split the property into three separate lots, thus enabling the parking operations to remain separate from the development.

This post was updated to include the identity of the JV partner.