Benjamin Silberstein pays $5.4M for 2 walkups with 5 units in Williamsburg

Benjamin Silberstein pays $5.4 million for two adjacent walkup buildings in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, one with three units and one with two units, in two transactions.

In the first transaction, Benjamin Silberstein through the entity Penn Holdings Ny LLC paid $2.7 million to Majer Smilowitz through the entity Rechovos Hanohor for the three-unit 1-4 family building (C0) at 85 Penn Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on September 3, 2025 and was recorded on September 15, 2025. The property has 2,400 square feet of built space and 2,460 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 4,860 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,125 and the price per buildable square foot is $555 per the PincusCo analysis.

In the second transaction, Benjamin Silberstein through the entity 83 Penn LLC paid $2.7 million to Majer Smilowitz through the entity Rechovos Hanohor for the two-unit 1-4 family building (B9) at 83 Penn Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on September 3, 2025 and was recorded on September 15, 2025. The property has 2,880 square feet of built space and 1,980 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 4,860 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $937 and the price per buildable square foot is $555 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 Majer Smilowitz was Majer Smilowitz. The signatory for Benjamin Silberstein was Benjamin Silberstein. The contract date was October 2, 2024.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Benjamin Silberstein had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Majer Smilowitz had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The 1-4 family building with 3 residential units in Williamsburg has 2,400 square feet of built space and 2,460 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 4,860 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 20 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,000 square feet. 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 $2.3 million.

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 not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The block

There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 67 percent of the 41,290 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 33 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Benjamin Silberstein owned at least 13 commercial properties with 116 residential units in New York City with 114,245 square feet and a city-determined market value of $19.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $11.9 million in debt, borrowed from JPMorgan Chase and Berkadia Commercial Mortgage. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 55 percent of the 114,245 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 42 percent of the space. The bulk, or 91 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 9 percent of the space.

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