Aurora Capital, Bridges Development buy GW Bridge retail leasehold for $46M, was in bankruptcy

A group of investors led by Bobby Cayre’s Aurora Capital Associates that includes Bridges Development purchased the leasehold for the George Washington Bridge retail for $46 million. The seller was JMB Capital Partners, which acquired the leasehold following the 2019 bankruptcy by owners who were financed by EB-5 money then ran into financial trouble at the project. The properties secured by the leasehold are 4200 and 4201 Broadway in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Bridges Development is led by Michael Berfield and Todd Cooper and Peter Ripka are partners.
A representative from Bridges declined to comment.

The owner that filed for bankruptcy in 2019, George Washington Bridge Bus Station Development Venture LLC, signed the ground lease as the tenant with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2011. The owners filed for bankruptcy in 2019.

The Wall Street Journal reported in June 2022 that JMB Capital Partners had pulled ahead as the lead bidder in the bankruptcy proceedings for the leasehold, offering $43.5 million to take over the leasehold from the bankrupt owners.

The Aurora and Bridges Development deal closed on December 1, 2022 and was recorded on December 20, 2022. The two properties have 218,631 square feet of built space and 218,214 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 436,708 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $210 and the price per buildable square foot is $105 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 and partners was Bobby Cayre.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 4201 Broadway.
period.

The property

The 4201 Broadway parcel has frontage of 185 feet and is 341 feet deep with a total lot size of 70,750 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-4 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 3.44 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $61.1 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The properties were involved in one lawsuit and one bankruptcy over the past two years. The suit was a $72 million money judgment concerning a ground lease filed on October 4, 2021, by EB-5 investors against Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received $75 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 $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Washington Heights, the bulk, or 45 percent of the 66 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space. In sales, Washington Heights has 1.6 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $548 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 26th highest in Manhattan. For development, Washington Heights has 1.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 22nd highest in Manhattan. It had 1.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 4201 Broadway, PincusCo has identified the owners of 20 of the 31 commercial properties representing 992,891 square feet of the 1,403,746 square feet. The largest owner is Stellar Management, followed by DSA Property Group and then Barberry Rose Management.
there are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 74 percent of the 1.4 million square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 13 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Aurora Capital Associates owned at least 11 commercial properties in New York City with 585,204 square feet and a city-determined market value of $163.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $313.8 million in debt, with top three lenders as Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, New York Community Bank, and Wells Fargo respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 52 percent of the 585,204 square feet of built space are retail properties, with office properties next occupying 35 percent of the space. The bulk, or 58 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 38 percent of the space.

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