At the corner of Vernon Boulevard and 45th Road in Long Island City, an 80,000-square-foot full-block footprint sitting inside the newly rezoned M1-2A/R6A corridor just produced the largest Queens deed of the quarter. 4501 Vernon Ground Lessor LLC paid $95 million on September 9, 2026 to acquire the 90,000-square-foot campus at 10-01 45th Road from DH Vernon LLC ($1,056 per existing building square foot), pairing the fee transfer with a $12.91 million Valley National Bank mortgage recorded five days later. When the deed closed on September 9, 2026, 4501 Vernon Ground Lessor LLC had officially taken down 10-01 45th Road from DH Vernon LLC for $95 million, with Newmark / Eastdil Secured brokering the trade.

At $1,056 a square foot across 90,000 square feet, the trade establishes a clean clearing mark for Long Island City 80,000-sf lot institutional & mixed-use campus assets.

Splitting the Fee and Leasehold on an 80,000-Square-Foot LIC Block

The real tell in any Queens closing sits on the debt side of the ledger. To fund the purchase, 4501 Vernon Ground Lessor LLC locked in a $12.91 million senior ground-lease acquisition facility from Valley National Bank at 13.6 percent loan-to-value.

That loan commitment meant the buyers only needed to write a $82.09 million equity check to control a 2-story, 1931-vintage Long Island City asset. Credit committees aren't stretching to 75 percent leverage anymore, but when a sponsor brings $82.09 million of real cash equity and a basis of $1,056 a square foot, lenders like Valley National Bank are wide open for business.

From Our Desk

When we look at 10-01 45th Road on our placement desk at Light Tower Group, the lesson for New York sponsors comes down to the marriage of entry basis and capital structure. 4501 Vernon Ground Lessor LLC didn't try to fight the tape—they bought Long Island City footage at $1,056 a square foot and structured the stack to match the asset's timeline. Structuring a $95 million Long Island City block as a ground-lease fee acquisition with just 13.6 percent senior bank debt from Valley National Bank creates an ultra-safe bond-like fee position at the heart of Western Queens' next development wave.