1. Queens
Shows
Great
Promise
for
Multifamily
Real
Estate
By
Giro
Katsimbrakis
February
12,
2014
The
New
York
City
borough,
Queens,
has
seen
multifamily
property
sales
triple
over
the
past
four
years.
Additionally,
the
amount
of
money
that
these
properties
have
sold
for
also
increased
fourfold.
Treetop
Development
LLC,
a
New
Jersey
property
investment
firm,
purchased
a
sixteen-­‐story
apartment
building
in
Rego
Park,
Queens
last
year.
They
are
putting
about
seven
million
dollars
of
repair
work
into
the
building,
but
are
confident
about
growth
because
their
in
the
midst
of
investing
in
two
other
buildings
in
the
area.
Queens
has
stayed
behind
Manhattan
and
Brooklyn
in
terms
of
growth,
but
it
is
quickly
catching
up.
Multifamily
home
sales
have
also
continued
to
increase
in
the
other
New
York
City
sectors,
but
Queens
had
the
steepest
growth
in
sales
due
to
its
emerging
market.
Treetop
is
not
the
only
investment
firm
that
has
noticed
this
trend.
Various
investors
spent
over
a
billion
dollars
in
2013
to
snatch
up
apartment
properties.
Investors
are
mainly
buying
in
Queens
neighborhoods
like
Sunnyside,
Astoria,
Jackson
Heights,
Long
Island
City,
and
Elmhurst.
They
are
catering
to
those
who
can
no
longer
afford
rising
Manhattan
and
Brooklyn
prices,
but
they
still
want
to
be
close
enough
to
have
a
thirty-­‐minute
train
commute
into
the
city.
In
2012,
there
were
519
sales
of
investment
properties
in
Queens,
including
Multifamily
Real
Estate.
The
increase
in
sales
and
investment
in
Queens
is
quite
significant
and
has
a
lot
to
do
with
investors
being
driven
out
of
Manhattan
because
of
the
prices.
Additionally,
there
are
some
large-­‐scale
projects
in
the
works
that
will
make
Queens
more
attractive
to
various
populations.
For
example,
there
is
an
850
million
dollar
project
in
the
works
in
Flushing
Queens
called
Flushing
Commons.
Flushing
Commons
will
offer
residential
condo
units,
which
tend
to
be
attractive
to
the
large
Asian
population
in
the
area
that
wants
to
buy
more
often
than
rent.
Flushing
is
also
situated
very
near
to
La
Guardia
and
J.F.K.
Airports
and
easily
accessible
by
public
transportation.
The
bottom
line
is
that
now
is
the
time
to
invest
in
the
steep
upswing
of
multifamily
Real
Estate
in
Queens.

2.
Giro
Katsimbrakis
has
twenty
years
worth
of
real
estate
industry
experience.
He
began
as
a
leasing
agent
for
Kiska
Developers
in
New
York
City,
and
quickly
worked
his
way
up
the
company
ladder
to
Director
of
Sales.
After
bringing
the
company
out
of
the
red
and
expanding
its
office
to
over
twenty
agents,
he
started
his
own
commercial
and
residential
real
estate
company,
East
River
Properties.
After
taking
over
the
Las
Vegas
and
Arizona
markets,
Giro
Katsimbrakis
relocated
to
the
Dallas/Fort
Worth
area
and
founded
DPW
Properties,
which
he
is
currently
in
the
process
of
expanding
nationwide.
Throughout
his
long
and
successful
career,
Giro
has
rehabbed
over
four
hundred
properties,
and
bought
and
sold
millions
of
dollars
worth
of
real
estate.