A new-to-New York developer just dropped $63M on a Long Island City property.

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Grubb Properties, known for its workforce housing development, picked up its first property in the Big Apple: a 54K SF development site at 25-01 Queens Plaza North, according to CBRE, which brokered the deal. Grubb plans to build housing and take advantage of the opportunity zone program.

The seller is Estia Realty LLC, an Astoria-based family real estate firm. The family has owned the property — located in an opportunity zone in Long Island City — since 1984, property records show. CBRE’s Dan Kaplan and Elli Klapper brokered the deal for Estia Realty.

Grubb Properties, helmed by Clay Grubb, filed plans with the city for a 317-unit housing complex at the address last month, The Real Deal reported. In an interview with Multi-Housing News in June, Grubb said the coronavirus pandemic prompted the company to start building in New York.

“We found that the pandemic opened the drawbridge to certain gateway markets, such as Los Angeles and New York,” he told MHN. “In fact, we recently opened an office in San Jose and continue to build our presence in New York to seize these opportunities.”

New buyers — particularly ones that would have been priced out in New York before the pandemic — have become increasingly common in New York City’s investment markets as the city reckons with the pandemic fallout.