Abraham Posner signs contract to buy 20-unit Williamsburg project from Joel Schwartz

Abraham Posner signed a contract to pay an undisclosed amount to developer Joel Schwartz through the entity 104 Frost LLC, for the mid-construction 20-unit project at 104 Frost Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The expected use is cash flowing. Schwartz owns the adjacent development at 98-100 Frost Street.
On the lot, there is one active new building construction project, B00735002, for a 20-unit, 13,499 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Yisroel Greenfeld on May 25, 2022 and permitted August 29, 2023.
The memorandum of contract was signed on October 11, 2024 and was recorded on November 1, 2024.
The signatory for Joel Schwartz was Joel Schwartz. The signatory for Abraham Posner was Abraham Posner. The memorandum has an apparent typo, since it gives the outside closing date as April 10, 2024, which is before the memorandum of contract dated October 11, 2024, so PincusCo is making the assumption the outside closing date is April 10, 2025.
Joel Schwartz bought the property on May 2, 2023, for $4.9 million, borrowing $10.4 million from BridgeCity Capital.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Abraham Posner had purchased any other properties and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $20 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Joel Schwartz purchased 15 properties in 14 transactions for a total of $51.8 million and sold 15 properties in 15 transactions for a total of $139.8 million over the same time period.

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 received $2,500 in ECB penalties and $2,500 in OATH penalties 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 4th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg has 4.3 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 2nd highest in Brooklyn. It had 4.6 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 9 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 17 commercial properties representing 34,850 square feet of the 67,991 square feet. The largest owner is Cono Mazza, followed by Coraggio Angelo and then Yoel Berkowitz.
On the tax block, there were four new building construction projects totaling 32,453 square feet. The largest is a 20-unit, 13,499 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Yisroel Greenfeld and filed by Yisroel Greenfeld with plans filed May 25, 2022 and permitted August 29, 2023. The second largest is a 10-unit, 6,729 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by David Halberstam with plans filed December 1, 2021 and permitted June 22, 2022.

The majority, or 59 percent of the 67,991 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joel Schwartz owned at least 93 commercial properties with 1,450 residential units in New York City with 1,055,026 square feet and a city-determined market value of $180.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.3 billion in debt, with top three lenders as BridgeCity Capital, Citibank, and Deutsche Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 58 percent of the 1,055,026 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 16 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Abraham Posner owned at least five commercial properties with 68 residential units in New York City with 85,385 square feet and a city-determined market value of $10.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $42.2 million in debt, with top three lenders as Ponce Bank, TD Bank, and Valley National Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 50 percent of the 85,385 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with hotel properties next occupying 31 percent of the space. The bulk, or 94 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 6 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link