DH Vernon Sells $95M LIC Fee, Borrows $107M on the Leasehold Same Day

DH Vernon LLC sold the fee under its Long Island City development site for $95,000,000 on September 9, 2026, then had the same site’s leasehold borrow $107,092,500 against it, the same day, according to deed and mortgage instruments recorded in the New York City Register this month.

The deed sends the land, Queens Block 50, Lot 1 at the corner of Vernon Boulevard and 45th Road, from DH Vernon LLC to 4501 Vernon Ground Lessor LLC. The mortgage runs the other direction: 4501 Vernon Ground Lessee LLC, a separate entity holding the leasehold on the same block and lot, borrowed against it from Valley National Bank. Both documents carry a September 9 execution date. The deed recorded September 17, the mortgage recorded September 22.

Why it matters

Splitting fee from leasehold on the same asset, same day, is the standard playbook for pulling more cash out of a site than a straight sale would return. The seller collects the full $95 million for the dirt. The leasehold side then borrows against the building rights separately, in this case $107.1 million, more than the land itself changed hands for. For a developer weighing whether to sell outright or restructure, the same-day pairing here is the tell: the ground lease was underwritten before the deed closed, not improvised afterward.

The numbers

The fee sale: $95,000,000, CRFN 2026000265078, doc ID 2026091100548002, dated September 9 and recorded September 17. The ground-lease mortgage: $107,092,500, CRFN 2026000270848, doc ID 2026091700506001, also dated September 9, recorded September 22. Both instruments sit on the same BBL, 4-50-1. The city’s ACRIS legal-description crosswalk lists that lot’s address as 10-01 45th Road, the corner-lot counterpart to the 4501 Vernon Boulevard frontage carried on the deed itself.

What’s next

Every party on both filings is an LLC: DH Vernon, the Ground Lessor, the Ground Lessee. The City Register does not name the individuals behind any of them, and no news coverage of a 4501 Vernon Boulevard or 45-01/10-01 45th Road ground lease has surfaced to unmask the sponsor. That is itself the record: a $200 million-plus paired transaction on a Long Island City waterfront-adjacent block moved without a single named principal attached to it publicly. Watch ACRIS for the next filing on BBL 4-50-1, a building loan or an assignment, which typically names the operating entity’s guarantor. More New York coverage.