$45.75M notes sold on Harlem rentals Emerald Equity Group refinanced in 2017

An entity that shares a Brooklyn address with Moshe Greenzweig’s Cedarbridge Management bought three loans with a total original 2017 principal of $45.75 million from Santander Bank secured by three Harlem properties with a combined 132 units.

Isaac Kassirer’s Emerald Equity Group refinanced all three properties with Santander Bank in 2017. It’s not clear who controls the properties today, since all three properties show a 2019 “sundry agreement” recorded with city property records that says Isaac Kassirer assigned his interests in Emerald Equity Group to Moshe Piller’s MP Management, and Kassirer, “hereby resigns as member of the Company and resigns any and all powers associated with his membership.”

In the first transaction, the entity 114th St Manhattan Ave LLC bought a note with an original principal of $23.6 million from Santander Bank secured by the 49-unit residential elevator building (D1) at 350 Manhattan Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan.
The deal closed on December 20, 2022 and was recorded on December 23, 2022. The prior lender was Santander Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $23.6 million.The property has 47,730 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data.
The 2017 signatory for Emerald Equity Group was Isaac Kassirer. Dozens of apartment buildings owned by Moshe Greenzweig and Larry Jeremias have their registration address at “261 Lenox Road, Office” and no other owner is registered there. The total debt for these three loans, provided in 2017, was $45.75 million. None of these three loans appears to be in foreclosure or bankruptcy, although other Emerald Equity loans are in foreclosure and bankruptcy.

In the second, the entity 114th St Manhattan Ave LLC bought a note with an original principal of $12.9 million from Santander Bank secured by the 59-unit residential elevator building (D2) at 320 Manhattan Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan. The deal closed on December 20, 2022 and was recorded on December 23, 2022. The prior lender was Santander Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $12.9 million. The property has 44,622 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The owner bought the property on December 14, 2017, for $21.5 million. The signatory for the 2017 Emerald Equity Group was Isaac Kassirer.

In the third, the entity 114th St Manhattan Ave LLC bought a note with an original principal of $9.3 million from Santander Bank secured by the 24-unit residential walkup building (C4) at 312 West 114th Street in Harlem, Manhattan. The deal closed on December 20, 2022 and was recorded on December 23, 2022. The prior lender was Santander Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $9.3 million. The property has 20,844 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The owner bought the property on December 14, 2017, for $11 million. The signatory for Emerald Equity Group was Isaac Kassirer.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Mark Sibler, head officer and Stuart Fish, site manager. The business entities are Choice New York Management and 350 Manhattan Ave Lp. The 47,730-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.7 million or $37 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 350 Manhattan Avenue parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 103 feet deep with a total lot size of 10,487 square feet. The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $9.1 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $1,250 in ECB penalties, 61 housing violations, $1,950 in OATH penalties, and three housing litigations 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 block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 22 of the 31 commercial properties representing 266,536 square feet of the 433,077 square feet. The largest owner is Yuco Management, followed by Ethan Rozenblatt and then Clarissa Mercedes.
there are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 56 percent of the 404,463 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 44 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Emerald Equity Group owned at least 73 commercial properties in New York City with 1,400,968 square feet and a city-determined market value of $174.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $70 million in debt, borrowed from Sabal Capital Partners and Sabal Capital Group. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 73 percent of the 1,400,968 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 26 percent of the space. The bulk, or 72 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Bronx next at 28 percent of the space.

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