70-unit conversion planned for current Brownsville commercial building
400 Thatford Avenue (Credit - Cyclomedia)
A developer through the entity 400 Thatford Residence LLC submitted a major alteration application to create 70 residential units and add a floor to what is now a two-story 16,740 square-foot commercial (COM) building at 400 Thatford Avenue in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The new building will have 24,081 square feet of zoning floor area. The development entity is in care of an address developer Simon Kaufman often uses. However no individual’s name was included in the filing.
The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on May 13, 2024 under job number B01047985. It calls for the increase in size of the building from a two-story building with no dwelling units to a three-story building with 70 dwelling units. The project is described in the filing as: Conversion and one-story vertical enlargement of two-story manufacturing building, and change into 70 class A dwelling units.
City property records show Joseph Riegler through the entity 400 Thatford Holdings LLC borrowed $5.55 million in January 2020, but there have been no sales or loans recorded since that date.
The building is located within a 2020 rezoning district, 803 Rockaway Avenue Rezoning, which the affordable housing developer The Bridge spearheaded to build 174 units of affordable housing and manufacturing space, but which also included the tax lot 400 Thatford Avenue.
400 Thatford Avenue
| wdt_ID | floor | comment | description | persons_permitted | occupancy_label | zoning_use | dwelling_units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | TWENTY FOUR (24) CLASS A DWELLING UNITS | Apartment | N/A | Residential | 2a | 24 |
| 2 | 1 | METER & MECHANCIAL ROOM, REFUSE ROOM | Apartment | N/A | Residential | 2b | |
| 3 | 2 | TWENTY EIGHT (28) CLASS A DWELLING UNITS | Apartment | N/A | Residential | 2a | 28 |
| 4 | 3 | EIGHTEEN (18) CLASS A DWELLING UNITS | Apartment | N/A | Residential | 2a | 18 |
| 5 | 0 | STAIR BULKHEAD, BICYCLE STORAGE ROOM FOR 34 BIKES | Apartment | N/A | Residential | 2b | |
| 6 | 0 | PASSIVE RECREATION SPACE | Apartment | 13 | Residential | 2b | |
| floor | comment | description | persons_permitted | occupancy_label | zoning_use | dwelling_units |
The property
The industrial building in Brownsville has 16,740 square feet of built space and 25,200 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 42,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has two buildings with frontage of 140 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 14,000 square feet. The zoning is M1-4/R6A which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 3 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.2 million. The most recent loan totaled $5.5 million and was provided by Parke Bank on January 31, 2020.
Prior sales and revenue
This property was sold for $4.5 million on January 31, 2020.
The 16,740-square-foot property generated revenue of $198,269 or $12 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.
Violations and lawsuits
According to city public data, the property has received $3,300 in OATH penalties in the last year.
There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.
The neighborhood
In Brownsville, The bulk, or 46 percent of the 28.6 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, Brownsville has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $210.1 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 29th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Brownsville has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 10th highest in Brooklyn. It had 1.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.
The block
On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the three commercial properties representing 16,740 square feet of the 122,851 square feet. The identified owner is David Steinberg. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 182,620 square feet. It is a 174-unit, 182,620 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by The Bridge, Inc. and filed by Carole Gordon with plans filed December 8, 2020 and permitted March 30, 2022.
The owner
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Simon Kaufman owned at least 18 commercial properties with 462,236 square feet, 528 residential units and a city-determined market value of $32.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $393.4 million in debt, with top three lenders as Greystone & Co., SCALE Lending, and BridgeCity Capital respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 79 percent of the 462,236 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 21 percent of the space. The bulk, or 58 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Brooklyn next at 27 percent of the space.
The surrounding
Within a 400-foot radius of 400 Thatford Avenue, PincusCo identified two commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. One of those two items was a sale which Doe Fund bought the 9,612-square-foot, one-unit retail building (K1) on 794 Rockaway Avenue for $6.5 million from Ramzey Ahmad on December 19, 2022. One of those two items was a loan which Doe Fund borrowed $9.5 million from Corporation for Supportive Housing secured by the 9,612-square-foot, one-unit retail building (K1) on 794 Rockaway Avenue on December 19, 2022.
Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.