$9.1M bankruptcy halts 39-unit Ridgewood foreclosure auction

The co-owners of a 39-unit rent regulated building at 1071 Cypress Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens, entities owned by Shorenstein Properties affiliates, filed to place the building under chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to halt a $9.1 million foreclosure auction scheduled for August 2, 2024. The owners filed the bankruptcy on August 1, 2024 in the Eastern District of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court through the entities Silvershore Cypress LLC and Silvershore Properties 95 LLC, with Silvershore Cypress LLC as the lead.

Case 1-24-43223-ess LINK

Chapter 11 LINK

The owners control the property through a tenant-in-common agreement, with the entity Silvershore Cypress LLC owning 69.5 percent and Silvershore Properties 95 LLC owning 30.41 percent. They bought the property in 2015 for $10.575 million, borrowing $9.1 million from Valley National Bank at the time. The owners founded Silvershore Properties in 2008 and in 2018 The Real Deal reported the partners were parting ways.

The 33,483-square-foot building has 39 rent stabilized units and five retail stores. According to the bankruptcy petition, 21 units have been “gut renovated,” and the property has a stabilized annual residential rent roll of $840,000.
With the onset of Covid, the property’s $9.1 million loan to Valley National Bank went into default, and the bank filed the pre-foreclosure in January 2021, 701403/2021. The bankruptcy blocked an auction set for August 2. The borrowers hired David Goldwasser of FIA Capital Partners as chief restructuring officer and hired Greg Corbin of Northgate Real Estate Group to market the property for a bankruptcy sale, with an estimated value of approximately $8 million to $9 million. The court appointed Lloyd Weinstein as receiver, and he appointed Michael Besen of Besen Group as property manager. Kevin Nash of Goldberg Weprin Finkel Goldstein is the bankruptcy attorney.

The property

The walkup building with 39 residential units in Ridgewood has 33,488 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 109 feet deep with a total lot size of 10,526 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R5B which allows for up to 1.35 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.8 million.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold for $10.6 million on November 5, 2015.

The 33,488-square-foot property generated revenue of $746,967 or $22 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Development

Over the past five years, there has been no NYC Department of Buildings new building, demolition, or alteration permit application valued at more than $20,000 filed for this parcel.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received two DOB violations, 14 housing violations, and $150 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Ridgewood, The bulk, or 38 percent of the 20 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 29 percent of the space. In sales, Ridgewood has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $271.3 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 8th highest in Queens. For development, Ridgewood has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 18th highest in Queens. It had 432,615 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the seven commercial properties representing 6,605 square feet of the 49,818 square feet. The identified owner is Berl Schlesinger. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 3,631 square feet. It is a two-unit, 3,631 square-foot residential (R-3) building submitted by Xiao Zheng with plans filed January 9, 2022 and permitted October 22, 2022.

The owner

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Lloyd Weinstein, head officer and John Catalic, agent. The business entities are Lloyd Weinstein As Receiver and Lloyd Weinstein As Receiver.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 1081 Cypress Avenue, PincusCo identified one commercial real estate item of interests occurred over the past 24 months. It was a loan which Urban View Development Group borrowed $9.7 million from Bethpage Federal Credit Union secured by the 0-square-foot, 28-unit rental (D3) on 1661 Summerfield Street on May 12, 2023.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.