Ben-Josef Group pays $40M to UBS for 2 rentals in Clinton Hill, last sold for $55.9M

Ben-Josef Group Holdings paid $40 million to UBS Realty Investors for the 43-unit rental building at 100 Steuben Street and the 29-unit mixed-use building at 531 Marcy Street in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn in three separate transactions.

In the first, Ben-Josef Group Holdings through the entity 100 Steuben Development LLC paid $22.3 million to UBS Realty Investors through the entity Steuben Street/Myrtle Avenue Apartments Owner LLC for the 43-unit residential elevator building (D3) at 100 Steuben Street in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on July 28, 2023 and was recorded on August 11, 2023. The property has 33,949 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $656 per the PincusCo analysis.

In the second, Ben-Josef Group Holdings through the entity 531 Myrtle Development LLC paid $14.7 million to UBS Realty Investors through the entity Steuben Street/Myrtle Avenue Apartments Owner LLC for the 29-unit residential condominium unit at 531 Myrtle Street in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. The deal closed on July 28, 2023 and was recorded on August 11, 2023. The unit has 24,200 square feet of built space. The sale price per built square foot is $607 and the price per buildable square foot is $490 per the PincusCo analysis.

In the third, Ben-Josef Group Holdings through the entity 531 Myrtle Retail Development LLC paid $3 million to UBS Realty Investors through the entity Steuben Street/Myrtle Avenue Apartments Owner LLC for the retail condominium unit at 531 Marcy Street in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. The deal closed on July 28, 2023 and was recorded on August 11, 2023. The property has 8,202 square feet of built space. The sale price per built square foot is $365 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 seller bought the property on January 23, 2020, for $55.9 million. The signatory for UBS Realty Investors was Thomas Pierandri. The signatory for Ben-Josef Group Holdings was Ronen Ben-Josef. The contract date was April 5, 2023.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Ben-Josef Group Holdings had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller UBS Realty Investors had not purchased any other properties and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $114 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Kevin Hamel, head officer and Amanda Walker-Saylor, site manager. The business entities are Grep Atlantic Llc and Steuben Street/Myrtle Avenue Apartment Owner Llc.

The property

The residential elevator building with 43 residential units in Clinton Hill has 33,949 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 75 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,499 square feet. The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The property has a 421a exemption that started in 2019 and expires in 2034. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $6.8 million. The most recent loan totaled $41.9 million and was provided by UBS Bank on January 23, 2020.

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 $50 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on September 8, 2017. On the lot, there was one active new building construction project for a 43-unit, 29,953 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Arch Companies and filed by Jeff Simpson with plans filed May 23, 2014 and permitted August 17, 2015.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 29 commercial properties representing 146,635 square feet of the 192,685 square feet. The largest owner is Ubs Realty Investors, followed by Tadeusz Rutkowski and then Sam Weinberg.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 66,755 square feet. The largest is a 43-unit, 29,953 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Arch Companies and filed by Jeff Simpson with plans filed May 23, 2014 and permitted August 17, 2015. The second largest is a 29-unit, 25,699 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Arch Companies and filed by Jeff Simpson with plans filed May 28, 2014 and permitted July 15, 2015.

The majority, or 64 percent of the 192,685 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that UBS Realty Investors owned at least three commercial properties with 43 residential units in New York City with 915,559 square feet and a city-determined market value of $347.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 95 percent of the 915,559 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 4 percent of the space. The bulk, or 96 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 4 percent of the space.

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