Auto leasing company pays $5.6M for industrial in Mt Eden, adds to assemblage

Rafael Tsour’s auto leasing company Tower Group through the entity 1415 Cromwell LLC paid $5.6 million to Miguel Valerio through the entity Natasha Realty Corp. for midblock industrial building at 1401 Cromwell Avenue in Mt Eden, Bronx. Tower Group now owns three adjacent tax lots on the block.
The deal closed on March 14, 2022 and was recorded on March 29, 2022.The property has 10,000 square feet of built space and 65,114 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 75,093 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $557 and the price per buildable square foot is $74 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 Miguel Valerio was Miguel Valerio. The signatory for Tower Group was Rafael Tsour. Rafael Tsour is president of the Tower Group, which owns companies such as Tower Auto Mall that sells and leases cars to the taxi and limousine industry.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has no record that the buyer Tower Group had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Miguel Valerio had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The 1401 Cromwell Avenue parcel has frontage of 101 feet and is 125 feet deep with a total lot size of 12,474 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R8A which allows for up to 6.02 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $540,000.

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 $1,000 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 Mt Eden, the bulk, or 49 percent of the 10.8 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 26 percent of the space. In sales, Mt Eden has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $102.6 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Mt Eden has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 441,770 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 15 of the 50 commercial properties representing 569,509 square feet of the 1,596,972 square feet. The largest owner is Chestnut Holdings of New York, followed by Atlantic Development Group and then Property Resources Corporation. There are nine active new building construction projects totaling 242,593 square feet. The largest is a 116-unit, 95,413-square-foot R-2 building developed by Jorge Batista with plans filed May 29, 2019 and permitted September 20, 2021. The second largest is a 59-unit, 43,411-square-foot R-2 building developed by Arjan Gjushi with plans filed November 6, 2020 and permitted August 30, 2021.

The majority, or 66 percent of the 1.9 million square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 13 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 1401 Cromwell Avenue, PincusCo identified nine commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those nine items, two were in new building development. There were one new building permit application and one new building permit. The most recent of these two items was a permit on July 21, 2021 for a 67,916-square-foot school building with no residential unit at 1401 Inwood Avenue.
Of those nine items, two were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were two permit applications with a total initial cost of $2.7 million. The most recent of these two items was the filing on May 3, 2021 for a 25,001-square-foot F-2 building with no residential units at 1414 Cromwell Avenue.
One of those nine items was a sale which Family Life Academy Charter Schools bought the industrial building (G6) on 1400 Cromwell Avenue for $12.8 million from LargaVista Companies on January 11, 2021.
Of those nine items, four were loans above $5 million totaling $98.8 million. The most recent of the four was Rafael Tsour which borrowed $7.6 million from Customers Bank secured by the 25,000-square-foot, one-unit industrial (G2) on 1415 Cromwell Avenue and one other property on February 10, 2022.

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