If the condo market really is shaky, don’t tell the developers in Flushing.
George Xu and his Century Development Group are moving forward with a 101-unit condominium at The Farrington, a residential, hotel and retail building in Flushing, an offering plan filed with the New York State Attorney General’s office shows. The target sellout for Xu’s apartments is $106 million, so just over $1 million a pad.
Through his Century EB-5 regional center, Xu has raised $30 million in foreign project financing for the build. He filed the project’s first construction plans back in 2014 at 134-37 35th Avenue. Architect Raymond Chan is designing the 202,000-square-foot building that will include a Four Points Sheraton Hotel. Xu plans to live in the Farrington’s duplex penthouse, he told The Real Deal earlier this year.
The Farrington plan is just the latest in what has been one of Flushing’s most impressive development clips. George Xu and his brother Chris Xu, together under the banner of C&G Empire Realty, were two of the most active builders in all of Queens, developing more than 1 million square feet over the last decade. They split to form their own companies sometime in 2014 and Chris has since started on Queens’ tallest skyscraper, a 79-story tower in Long Island City.
Other projects in the pipeline for George include an 88-unit Jamaica building with a mix of condos and rentals and a 250-unit Westin Hotel in Flushing.
Flushing meanwhile is a veritable condo factory, with 2,600 new condos hitting the market since 2010 and another 2,800 expected before 2021. Alongside all the ground-up new development could be a wave of condo conversions, too. Joel Weiner’s Pinnacle Group recently filed to convert a 144-unit rent-stabilized property 142-20 Franklin Avenue. The company bought two more rent-stabilized buildings in the area earlier this month, paying $57.6 million.