Azimuth pays $6.1M for dev site in Westchester Square

Azimuth Development Group through the entity Ap Castle Hill Owner LLC paid $6.1 million to Sopher Real Estate through the entity Westcast Development LLC for the development site (V1) at 2211 Westchester Avenue in Westchester Square, Bronx.
On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 85-unit, 71,935 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Sopher Management and filed by Barbara Sopher with plans filed February 25, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet.
The deal closed on May 29, 2024 and was recorded on May 31, 2024. The property has zero square feet of built space and 36,710 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 36,710 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $165 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 Sopher Real Estate was Jonathan Sopher. The signatory for Azimuth Development Group was Guido Subotovsky. The contract date was December 8, 2023.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Azimuth Development Group purchased three properties in two transactions for a total of $13 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Sopher Real Estate had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 87 feet and is 164 feet deep with a total lot size of 15,107 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $932,000.

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 one DOB violation and $1,300 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Westchester Square, The bulk, or 30 percent of the 5.3 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with office buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Westchester Square has the 24th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in Bronx with $47.8 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Westchester Square has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 255,870 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the seven commercial properties representing 151,570 square feet of the 161,892 square feet. The largest owner is Vaja Group, followed by Sopher Group and then New York City Housing Authority.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 195,653 square feet. The largest is a 85-unit, 71,935 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Sopher Management and filed by Barbara Sopher with plans filed February 25, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 81-unit, 61,859 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Isaac Rosenberg and filed by Isaac Rosenberg with plans filed April 14, 2022 and permitted June 3, 2022.

The majority, or 69 percent of the 161,892 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 16 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Azimuth Development Group owned at least eight commercial properties with 80 residential units in New York City with 207,913 square feet and a city-determined market value of $16 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $106.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, NYS Housing Finance Agency, and KeyBank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 42 percent of the 207,913 square feet of built space are specialty properties, with W3 properties next occupying 26 percent of the space. The bulk, or 93 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Bronx next at 7 percent of the space.

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