Media Mentions

Lev Kimyagarov and Rubin Isak, former senior directors at Massey Knakal Realty Services/Cushman & Wakefield and Eastern Consolidated, respectively, have formed Development Site Advisors, solely focused on the development site sector.

Development Site Advisors has already sold the famed Shalimar Diner site, a 14,000-square-foot corner lot in Rego Park, Queens. It has also represented the purchaser of the Neptune Diner in Astoria, Queens; former gas stations in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and Elmhurst, Queens; air rights for the Grace Lutheran Church in Astoria, which will use those funds to build a gym for their students; a 1.88-acre site in Glen Cove, Long Island and a corner lot in Woodside, Queens that will contain a charter school.

“During our many years of working in the commercial real estate industry, we came to realize that there was a true void in the development site sector,” notes Kimyagarov, managing principal and co-founder. “Development sites are a very complex asset class, with each site having several potential development scenarios and each scenario affecting value differently. But most brokers don’t evaluate development sites correctly, primarily because of their lack of neighborhood-specific zoning knowledge. That’s why our tagline is We Know Zoning.’”

The firm offers proprietary tech-driven valuations sitestimate, landstimate and airstimate, noted Isak, the firm’s other Co-Founder and Managing Principal.

“With those proprietary tools, we look at, first, the neighborhood, then the specific zoning regulations for that area and site, along with every possible development scenario with costs, and ultimately the value a developer can pay for any given site,” Isak said.