Aurora Capital Associates signs $123.4M refi loan with Deutsche Pfandbriefbank for retail in Meatpacking District

Aurora Capital Associates through the entity 60-74 Gansevoort Street LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Deutsche Pfandbriefbank valued at $123.4 million for the retail building at 809 Washington Street in Meatpacking District, Manhattan.
The deal closed on March 10, 2022 and was recorded on April 14, 2022. The prior lender was JPMorgan Chase which held debt that had an original loan amount of $60.2 million.The property has 74,496 square feet of built space and 8,461 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 82,955 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $1,656 and the price per buildable square foot is $1,487 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 Aurora Capital Associates was Robert Cayre. The signatory for Deutsche Pfandbriefbank was Dr. Jonas Wolk and Vincent Clauß.

The property

The 809 Washington Street parcel has frontage of 72 feet and is 201 feet deep with a total lot size of 16,591 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-5 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The property is in the Gansevoort Market Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.8 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was not involved in any lawsuits or bankruptcies in the past years. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received eight DOB violations and $3,780 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Meatpacking District, the bulk, or 25 percent of the 2.3 million square feet of commercial built space are retail buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space. In sales, Meatpacking District has 1.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $343.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 27th highest in Manhattan. For development, Meatpacking District has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 5,419 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 0.24 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the seven commercial properties representing 459,325 square feet of the 571,798 square feet. The two identified owners are TF Cornerstone and Aurora Capital Associates. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 71 percent of the 641,341 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 13 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database, which is incomplete) currently indicates that Aurora Capital Associates owned at least eight commercial properties with 290,339 square feet and a city-determined market value of $153.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $106.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as Wells Fargo, Bank OZK, and New York Community Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 51 percent of the 290,339 square feet of built space are office properties, with development properties next occupying 16 percent of the space. The bulk, or 60 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 32 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 809 Washington Street, PincusCo identified 10 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those 10 items, two were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were two permit applications with a total initial cost of $934,425. The most recent of these two items was the filing on July 8, 2021 for a 6,526-square-foot M building with zero residential units at 69 Gansevoort Street.
Of those 10 items, three were sales above $5 million totaling $53.1 million. The most recent of the three was KREWE which bought the 5,317-square-foot, two-unit office building (O5) on 67 Gansevoort Street for $14.8 million from Anne Fairfax Ellett on January 18, 2022.
Of those 10 items, five were loans above $5 million totaling $179 million. The most recent of the five was KREWE which borrowed $18.9 million from Guaranty Bank & Trust and Business Initiative Corporation of New York secured by the 5,317-square-foot, two-unit office building (O5) on 67 Gansevoort Street on February 9, 2022.

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