Aurora Capital Associates signs $90M refi with Apollo for retail in Williamsburg, prior lender was Wells Fargo

Aurora Capital Associates through the entity Cab Bedford LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Apollo Global Management through the entity Athene Annuity And Life Company valued at $90 million for the retail building (K2) at 193 Berry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on September 8, 2023 and was recorded on September 13, 2023. The prior lender was Wells Fargo which held debt that had an original loan amount of $90 million.
The property has 122,740 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $733 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 August 28, 2017, for $84.1 million. The signatory for Aurora Capital Associates was Robert Cayre. The signatory for Apollo Global Management was Jeffrey Horowitz.

The property

The retail building in Williamsburg has 122,740 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 137 feet and is 400 feet deep with a total lot size of 47,399 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-2/R6B which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 2 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $50.6 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 $6,650 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on December 31, 2015. 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 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 5th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.6 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg is the 9th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 4.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 8 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owner of the one commercial property that spans 122,740 square feet on the block. The identified owner is Alex Adjmi and Aurora Capital Associates.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

All properties are retail.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Aurora Capital Associates owned at least 19 commercial properties with 127 residential units in New York City with 1,113,773 square feet and a city-determined market value of $323.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $442.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, New York Community Bank, and Webster Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 28 percent of the 1,113,773 square feet of built space are retail properties, with office properties next occupying 23 percent of the space. The bulk, or 58 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 40 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link