Astral Weeks signs $6.4M refi with Ridgewood for 24-unit Astoria rental

Joseph Roubeni and Astral Weeks through the entity Astoria Development Group LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Ridgewood Savings Bank valued at $6.4 million for the 24-unit property at 25-19 27th Street in Astoria, Queens.
The deal closed on April 6, 2022 and was recorded on April 30, 2022. The prior lender was Valley National Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $7.7 million. Thw property has 19,205 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $333 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 Joseph Roubeni and Astral Weeks was Joseph Roubeni. The signatory for Ridgewood Savings Bank was Marna E. Bernstein. The prior loan of $7.65 million was originally given by Bank Leumi in 2013 and covered the 24 residential units (legally as one condo unit with 24 apartments) and one retail condo. The refi no longer includes the retail unit.

The property

The 25-19 27th Street parcel has a total lot size of 19,205 square feet. The property has a 421A exemption that started in 2012 and expires in 2027. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the 26 commercial properties representing 61,971 square feet of the 374,650 square feet. The two identified owners are Joseph Giannola and Carlos P. Naudon. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 75 percent of the 328,450 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 9 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database, which is incomplete, currently indicates that Astral Weeks owned at least 10 commercial properties with 71,329 square feet and a city-determined market value of $13.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $11.5 million in debt, borrowed from Popular Bank and Piermont Bank. Within the portfolio, all identified are residential walkup properties. They are all located in Brooklyn.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 25-19 27th Street, PincusCo identified three commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those three items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit issued on August 19, 2020 for the $692,085 renovation of 5,026-square-foot R-2 building with seven residential units at 26-14 Hoyt Avenue South.
Of those three items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $23.2 million. The most recent of the two was Carlos P. Naudon which borrowed $6 million from Ponce Bank secured by the 21,121-square-foot, 20-unit rental (D3) on 27-15 Astoria Boulevard on January 4, 2022.

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