Big City Realty signs $40M refi loan with Citibank for nine properties in Manhattan

Big City Realty through the entity 110 Convent BCR, LLC (and others) as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Citibank valued at $40 million for nine properties with 283 residential units including the 62-unit residential elevator building (D7) at 3660 Broadway in Harlem, Manhattan, 36-unit residential elevator building (D7) at 3440 Broadway in Harlem, Manhattan, and 48-unit residential elevator building (D1) at 461 West 159th Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
The deal closed on October 2, 2023 and was recorded on October 16, 2023. The nine properties have 300,492 square feet of built space and 93,587 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 380,697 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $133 and the price per buildable square foot is $105 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 Big City Realty was Alan J. Marcus. The signatory for Citibank was Scott DeTraglia. A tenants group sued Kobi Zamir’s Big City Realty in 2016.

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 3660 Broadway.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Kobi Zamir, head officer and Fernando Alfonso, agent. The business entities are 3660 Broadway LLC and 3662 Broadway BCR LLC. Out of the nine properties, two with a total of 300,492 square feet of built space generated revenue of $3.1 million per year.

The property

The residential elevator building with 62 residential units in Harlem has frontage of 99 feet and is 150 feet deep with a total lot size of 14,987 square feet. The zoning is R8 which allows for up to 6.02 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $9 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received 150 housing violations, $6,282 in OATH penalties, and two housing litigations 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

On the tax block of 3660 Broadway, PincusCo has identified the owners of 14 of the 26 commercial properties representing 216,903 square feet of the 372,999 square feet. The largest owner is Shamsy Baradarian, followed by Ron Nahum and then Monarch Realty Holdings.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 56,745 square feet. It is a 63-unit, 56,745 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Artifact Real Estate Development Company and filed by Javier Martinez with plans filed June 14, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 67 percent of the 372,999 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Big City Realty owned at least one commercial property with 48 residential units in New York City with 42,438 square feet and a city-determined market value of $4.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single elevator property. It is located in Manhattan.

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