ABJ Properties pays $11.1M for two walkup properties in South Slope

ABJ Properties through the entity 4th Avenue Twins LLC paid $11.1 million to Rosalind B. Resnick through the entity 475 4th Avenue LLC for the midblock eight-unit residential walkup building at 475 4th Avenue in South Slope, Brooklyn and midblock eight-unit residential walkup building at 479 4th Avenue in South Slope, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on April 11, 2022 and was recorded on April 26, 2022.

The two properties have 17,539 square feet of built space and 8,467 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 26,006 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $632 and the price per buildable square foot is $426 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 Rosalind B. Resnick was Rosalind B. Resnik. The signatory for ABJ Properties was Benjamin Soleimani. Benjamin Soleimani is the owner of ABJ Properties.

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 475 4th Avenue.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer ABJ Properties purchased 17 properties in four transactions for a total of $32.1 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Rosalind B. Resnick had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owner according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is Rosalind Resnick, head officer. The business entity is 475 4th Ave Llc. Out of the two properties, one with a total of 17,539 square feet of built space generated revenue of $199,291 per year.

The property

The 475 4th Avenue parcel has frontage of 27 feet and is 80 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,160 square feet. The zoning is R8A which allows for up to 6.02 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The property has a J-51 exemption that started in 2013 and expires in 2027. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.1 million.

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 $625 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot buildings, one out of the two buildings received an initial certificate of occupancy in the last ten years. 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 South Slope, the bulk, or 42 percent of the 9.4 million square feet of commercial built space are 1-4 family buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space. In sales, South Slope has 1.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $322.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 13th highest in Brooklyn. For development, South Slope has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 91,369 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 0.98 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other residential walkup buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 475 4th Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the 18 commercial properties representing 22,904 square feet of the 99,324 square feet. The two identified owners are Rosalind Resnick and Torkian Group. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 57 percent of the 242,672 square feet of built space are 1-4 family buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that ABJ Properties owned at least 53 commercial properties with 672,882 square feet and a city-determined market value of $63.2 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $17 million in debt, borrowed from Investors Bank and Berkadia Commercial Mortgage. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 86 percent of the 672,882 square feet of built space are residential walkup properties, with residential elevator properties next occupying 13 percent of the space. The bulk, or 52 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Manhattan next at 30 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 475 4th Avenue, PincusCo identified six commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those six items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on July 6, 2021 for a 40,207-square-foot R-2 building with 44 residential units at 487 Fourth Avenue.
One of those six items was a sale which Greenbrook Partners bought the 23,500-square-foot, 25-unit rental (C1) on 227 13th Street for $8.5 million from Stephen Green on March 2, 2021.
Of those six items, four were loans above $5 million totaling $116.4 million. The most recent of the four was Trinity Place Holdings which borrowed $50 million from Natixis secured by the 92,722-square-foot, 107-unit rental (D6) on 237 11th Street on July 20, 2021.

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