Big Dream Developers signs $10.7M contract in Bed-Stuy, flips contract to another buyer

UPDATED: Big Dream Developers through the entity 470 Flushing LLC signed a contract to pay $10.7 million to Paula Gluck through the entity Triple L Realty Corp. for the office building (O2) at 470 Flushing Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Then Ascher Berkowitz of Big Dream Developers assigned the contract through the broker Isaac Reich of Ritz Realty in a flip to the final buyer, Isaac Schwartz, who is a religious leader of a shul and a business owner of Telebroad Communications. Schwartz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The recorded sale price was $10.7 million, but sources said the final consideration was substantially higher.

Big Dream Developers, by its CEO Ascher Berkowitz, filed plans September 20, 2022, to convert a factory building located at 470 Flushing Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, into a 28,048-square-foot retail and office building. The plans were filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under the job number B08002955.
The deal closed on December 15, 2022 and was recorded on December 27, 2022. The property has 22,695 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $471 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 Paula Gluck was Paula Gluck. The signatory for Big Dream Developers was Ascher Berkowitz. Ascher Berkowitz is identified as managing member in the loan documents.
To finance the purchase, Big Dream Developers through the entity 470 Flushing LLC as borrower signed a acquisition loan with lender Golden Bridge Funding through the entity Golden Bridge R2 LLC valued at $10.4 million for the office building (O2) at 470 Flushing in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Big Dream Developers had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Paula Gluck had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 22,695-square-foot property generated revenue of $463,559 or $20 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 470 Flushing parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,000 square feet. The zoning is M1-2 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.7 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. 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 $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Bedford Stuyvesant, the bulk, or 34 percent of the 53.8 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Bedford Stuyvesant has 2.3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $807.1 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 5th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Bedford Stuyvesant has 3.8 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 4th highest in Brooklyn. It had 4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the 20 commercial properties representing 109,552 square feet of the 170,526 square feet. The largest owner is Wallworth Park LLC, followed by Shaindy Schwartz and then CW Realty.
On the tax block, there were five new building construction projects totaling 336,139 square feet. The largest is a N/A-unit, 95,995-square-foot B building developed by Sam Polatsek with plans filed January 27, 2017 and permitted April 30, 2019. The second largest is a N/A-unit, 90,213-square-foot M building developed by Moses Wertheimer with plans filed March 7, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 70 percent of the 170,526 square feet of built space are office buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Big Dream Developers owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 20,115 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $7.4 million in debt, borrowed from BridgeCity Capital. The portfolio consists of at least a single elevator property. It is located in Brooklyn.
UPDATED: The post was updated to include that the contract was flipped to Isaac Schwartz.

Direct link to Acris document. link