Alembic, others sign $14.7M ground lease, get $143.7M construction loan in Brownsville

Alembic Community Development, Brooklyn Community Housing & Services, and Hudson Housing Capital through the entity 2435 Pacific Street LLC as tenants signed a 99-year ground lease valued at $14.7 million with Love Fellowship Tabernacle as landlord, for the development site (V1) of a 236-unit, affordable project at 2435 Pacific Street in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
At the same time, Alembic Community Development, Brooklyn Community Housing & Services, and Hudson Housing Capital signed a new construction loan with lender NYS Housing Finance Agency and NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development valued at $143.7 million.
On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 236-unit, 190,615 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Walker Hezekiah with plans filed August 24, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.
The sale closed on June 29, 2023 and was recorded on July 6, 2023.
The signatory for Love Fellowship Tabernacle was Hezekiah Walker. The signatory for Alembic Community Development, Brooklyn Community Housing & Services, and Hudson Housing Capital was Jeffrey Nemetsky and Benjamin Warnke. This is a 99-year lease starting June 29, 2023.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Alembic Community Development had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Love Fellowship Tabernacle had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 233 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 23,333 square feet. The zoning is C4-5D which allows for up to 4.2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 4.2 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.1 million.

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 Brownsville, The bulk, or 46 percent of the 28.6 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, Brownsville has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $112.8 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Brownsville has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 857,873 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the 17 commercial properties representing 43,250 square feet of the 60,510 square feet. The largest owner is Maheshchand Ratanji, followed by LIRR and then Kings Hotel.
On the tax block, there were four new building construction projects totaling 270,627 square feet. The largest is a 236-unit, 190,615 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Walker Hezekiah with plans filed August 24, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 75-unit, 35,776 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Maheshchand Ratanji and filed by Nehalkumar Gandhi with plans filed January 6, 2021 and permitted August 9, 2022.

The majority, or 71 percent of the 60,510 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space.

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