Assisted living debt more than doubles to $25M in Kensington

Shimon Lefkowitz through the entity 631-635 Foster Avenue, LLC as borrower signed a loan with lender Flagstar Bank valued at $25 million for the 120-unit assisted living building (I7) at 635 Foster Avenue in Kensington, Brooklyn. The property is known as Signature Senior Living and uses the address 631 Foster Avenue.
The prior debt totaled $10.1 million and was provided by Metropolitan Commercial Bank on August 28, 2019.
The deal closed on August 3, 2023 and was recorded on August 15, 2023. The property has 51,240 square feet of built space and 9,029 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 60,196 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $487 and the price per buildable square foot is $415 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 owner bought the property on November 6, 2013, for $6.9 million.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Shimon Lefkowitz, head officer and Jennifer Avena, site manager. The business entity is Smacf Inc.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 150 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 15,049 square feet. The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $7.9 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 received one DOB violation, one housing violation, and $100 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Kensington, The bulk, or 44 percent of the 10.2 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space. In sales, Kensington has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $107.8 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Kensington has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 257,341 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 six of the 14 commercial properties representing 278,858 square feet of the 301,844 square feet. The largest owner is Abraham Jeremias, followed by Erik Fridman and then Petru Baciu Associates.
On the tax block, there were four new building construction projects totaling 51,750 square feet. The largest is a 19-unit, 22,723 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Oleg Krasnitsky with plans filed October 1, 2014 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 27-unit, 18,849 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Erik Fridman and filed by Erik Fridman with plans filed May 18, 2023 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 75 percent of the 301,844 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link