Aaron Parnes, Centurion Equities pay $26M to HF Capital for five properties in Far Rockaway

Aaron Parnes and Centurion Equities through the entities Gifrock LLC and Centurion Family Holdings, LLC paid $26 million to Howard Hershkovich’s HF Capital through the entity HF Rockaway LLC for the 60-unit residential elevator building (D1) at 22-88 Mott Avenue in Far Rockaway, Queens, 24-unit residential walkup building (C1) at 18-15 Everdell Avenue in Far Rockaway, Queens, and 17-unit residential walkup building (C1) at 11-27 Nameoke Street in Far Rockaway, Queens.
The deal closed on October 26, 2022 and was recorded on November 3, 2022. The five properties have 101,512 square feet of built space and 208 square feet of additional air rights according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $256 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatory for HF Capital was Howard Hershkovich. The signatory for Aaron Parnes and Centurion Equities was Aaron Parnes. The Gifrock entity represented by Aaron Parnes, holds 90% of the buyer TIC, while Centurion Family Holdings represented by Joseph Weinstein, holds 10%.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 22-88 Mott Avenue.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Aaron Parnes had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller HF Capital purchased three properties in one transaction for a total of $45.6 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Avi Singer, head officer and Isaac Rosen, agent. The business entities are Tissa Management and HF Rockaway. Out of the five properties, three with a total of 101,512 square feet of built space generated revenue of $1.9 million per year.

The property

The 22-88 Mott Avenue parcel has frontage of 133 feet and is 111 feet deep with a total lot size of 14,500 square feet. The zoning is R5 which allows for up to 1.25 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property has a J-51 exemption that started in 2018.0 and expires in 2052.0. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.1 million.The most recent loan totaled $20 million and was provided by Greystone & Co. on December 14, 2020.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received one DOB violation, $1,250 in ECB penalties, 685 housing violations, $2,205 in OATH penalties, and two 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 the tax block of 22-88 Mott Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the four commercial properties representing 54,480 square feet of the 60,982 square feet. The two identified owners are Howard Hershkovich and Hyman Schattner.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 19,563 square feet. The largest is a 12-unit, 9,892-square-foot R-2 building developed by Oran Revivo with plans filed March 17, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.The second largest is a 12-unit, 9,671-square-foot R-2 building developed by Oran Revivo with plans filed April 28, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 84 percent of the 60,982 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 16 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that HF Capital owned at least five commercial properties in New York City with 70,645 square feet and a city-determined market value of $10.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, all identified are walkup properties. The bulk, or 60 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 40 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Aaron Parnes owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 64,594 square feet and a city-determined market value of $2.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $5.6 million in debt, borrowed from New York Community Bank. The portfolio consists of at least a single elevator property. It is located in Bronx.

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