Uzi Shvut signs contract to buy Longwood retail from Steven Chera

Uzi Shvut through the entity 2944 Realty LLC signed a contract to buy from Steven Cohen through the entity 2944 Third Avenue Realty LLC the midblock retail building at 2944 Third Avenue in Longwood, Bronx. The price was not disclosed in the memorandum of contract, nor the closing date.
The memorandum was signed on February 28, 2022 and was recorded on March 18, 2022. The property has 4,332 square feet of built space and 3,119 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 7,451 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data.
Steven Chera bought the property on July 22, 2014, for $1.9 million.

Uzi Shvut owns at least 15 properties with a concentration in retail and mixed use, spread around the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. The portfolio totals 87,266 square feet and has properties in Gravesend, Far Rockaway, Sheepshead Bay and other neighborhoods.

Uzi Shvut’s LinkedIn page identifies Shvut as owner of ES Acquisition Corp.

The property

The 2944 Third Avenue parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 86 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,166 square feet. The zoning is C4-4 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 3.44 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.6 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was not involved in any lawsuits or bankruptcies in the past years. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Longwood, the bulk, or 36 percent of the 27.1 million square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space. In sales, Longwood has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $199.5 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Longwood has 3.8 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 3rd highest in Bronx. It had 3.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 13 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the 22 commercial properties representing 163,211 square feet of the 470,173 square feet. The largest owner is Starwood Capital Group, followed by Top Rock Holdings and then ACHS Management. There is one active new building construction project totaling 124,249 square feet. It is a 124,249-square-foot school (E) building developed by Meir Babaev with plans filed January 7, 2019 and permitted December 11, 2020.

The majority, or 38 percent of the 470,173 square feet of built space are mixed-use buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 2944 Third Avenue, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those four items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on January 26, 2022 for a 78,693-square-foot R-2 building with 69 residential units at 2976 3rd Avenue.
One of those four items was a sale which Top Rock Holdings bought the 11,450-square-foot, one-unit retail building (K1) on 2968 3rd Avenue for $8.8 million from Jackson Group on September 2, 2021.
Of those four items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $57 million. The most recent of the two was Top Rock Holdings which borrowed $6 million from Northwind Group secured by the 11,450-square-foot, one-unit retail building (K1) on 2968 3rd Avenue on September 2, 2021.

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