Aurora Capital signs $45M refi loan with Signature for two properties in Gowanus

Aurora Capital Associates through the entity Ch Gowanus 2 LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Signature Bank valued at $45 million for two properties including the industrial building (E1) at 37 9th Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn and office building (O5) at 124 9th Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on June 30, 2022 and was recorded on August 4, 2022. The two properties have 291,910 square feet of built space and 133,631 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 424,054 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $154 and the price per buildable square foot is $106 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 Signature Bank was Nicholas A. LaMorte.

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 37 9th Street.

Prior sales and revenue

The two properties with a total of 291,910 square feet of built space generated revenue of $8.1 million per year or $28 per square foot.

The property

The 37 9th Street parcel has frontage of 348 feet and is 362 feet deep with a total lot size of 126,067 square feet. The zoning is M2-1 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $8.4 million.The most recent loan totaled $26 million and was provided by Sterling National Bank on June 28, 2019.

Violations and lawsuits

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

Development

For the tax lot buildings, one out of the two buildings received a initial certificate of occupancy in the last ten years. 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 Gowanus, the bulk, or 47 percent of the 9.3 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space. In sales, Gowanus has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $366.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 16th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Gowanus is the 6th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5.5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 60 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 37 9th Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 13 commercial properties representing 488,367 square feet of the 659,494 square feet. The two identified owners are Elyahu Cohen and Aaron Berger.
There is one active new building construction project totaling 35,941 square feet. It is a N/A-unit, 35,941-square-foot S-1 building developed by Jack Marmurstein with plans filed May 22, 2014 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 100 percent of the 659,494 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 0 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Aurora Capital Associates owned at least 11 commercial properties in New York City with 423,786 square feet and a city-determined market value of $144.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $268.8 million in debt, with top three lenders as Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, New York Community Bank, and Wells Fargo respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 48 percent of the 423,786 square feet of built space are retail properties, with office properties next occupying 31 percent of the space. The bulk, or 83 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 11 percent of the space.

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