Abraham Lipschitz pays $12.5M to Sandy Stillman for Wythe Diner dev site in Williamsburg

Abraham Lipschitz through the entity 221 Wythe LLC paid $12.5 million to Sandy Stillman through the entity 207 Wythe Realty Enterprises, Ltd. for the 1950s-era Wythe Diner building (K5) at 221 Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The expected use is ground up development.

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project, B01201594, for a 28-unit, 24,631 square-foot residential (R-2) building. The project was submitted by Yoel Schwimmer and filed by Yoel Schwimmer with plans filed April 2, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet. Owner information on the Department of Buildings’s website has not been changed to reflect a new owner, and still shows Yoel Schwimmer.
The deal closed on July 23, 2025 and was recorded on July 31, 2025. The property has 2,786 square feet of built space and 15,866 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 18,666 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $4,486 and the price per buildable square foot is $669 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 Sandy Stillman was Sandy Stillman. The contract date was July 23, 2025.

To finance the purchase and construction, Lipschitz signed a $20.8 million loan with BridgeCity Capital.

The sale was brokered by Andrew Manasia and Daniel Lebor of TerraCRG.

In October 2024, PincusCo reported on the property after a memorandum of contract dated in September 2024 was disclosed in property records. The contract vendee in that instance, OVV LLC, was at the same address of Abraham Lipschitz used, 365 Flushing Avenue, Suite 711, in Brooklyn.

An anonymous buyer through the entity OVV LLC and registered at the law firm Reiss Sheppe, signed a contract in August to buy the 1950s-era Wythe Diner at 225 Wythe Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that was home to the Wythe Diner for two decades, then Relish, then Cafe de la Esquina, then Blank Street Coffee and most recently a Chanel perfume popup. Blank Street closed this location in 2023.

Stillman filed plans in 2014 for a 10-unit mixed-use building, and the plans were approved in 2018, but are not yet permitted. The plans remain active and in April 2024 the expediter was updated.

Stillman bought the building in November 1997 for $110,000, and obtained a seven-year purchase money mortgage of $125,000 from the sellers, Alex and Katherine Wrubel, that gave him two years before he needed to pay interest or principal.

The Wythe Diner was open from 1968 to 1988, and then Stillman opened Relish, which was closed by 2010. In 2014, Stillman filed new building plans for the 10-unit project, as Brownstoner reported at the time. After Relish came Cafe de la Esquina, then Blank Street Cafe and then Chanel rented it about a year ago for an experiential perfume display.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Abraham Lipschitz had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Sandy Stillman had not purchased any other properties and sold one property in one transaction for a total of 0.0 over the same time period.

The property

The mixed-use building in Williamsburg has 2,786 square feet of built space and 15,866 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 18,666 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 61 feet and is 116 feet deep with a total lot size of 6,222 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-2/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 $599,000.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Williamsburg, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 50.4 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Williamsburg has the 5th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg is the most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 41.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 83 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other mixed-use buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the 12 commercial properties representing 17,594 square feet of the 63,546 square feet. The largest owner is David Kubresi, followed by Reiss Sheppe Registered and then Gregory A. Kieser.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 10,961 square feet. The largest is a two-unit, 7,365 square-foot residential (R-3) building submitted by Gregory Kieser with plans filed August 10, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 28-unit, 3,596 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Yoel Schwimmer and filed by Yoel Schwimmer with plans filed April 2, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 35 percent of the 63,546 square feet of built space are mixed-use buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space.

UPDATED with broker information.

Direct link to Acris document. link