Big Dream Developers to convert factory to 28K sf retail, office in Bed-Stuy

Big Dream Developers, by its CEO Ascher Berkowitz, filed plans September 20 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 project is described as: interior renovation converting existing factory building into retail store and offices.

The 470 Flushing Avenue 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.
The commercial building in Bed Stuy has 22,695 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data, however the DOB filing says it has 28,048 square feet of zoning space.
The property generated revenue of $387,177 or $17 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.
According to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.
There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020.
On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the 22 commercial properties representing 109,552 square feet of the 170,526 square feet. The largest owner is Joel Schwartz, followed by CW Realty Group and then Wallworth Park LLC. On the tax block, there were five new building construction projects totaling 336,139 square feet. The largest is a 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 90,213-square-foot M building developed by Moses Wertheimer with plans filed March 7, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet.

Within a 400-foot radius of 470 Flushing Avenue, PincusCo identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those five items, two were in new building development. There were one new building permit application and one new building permit. The most recent of these two items was a filing on June 22, 2022 for a 71,574-square-foot B building at 25 Spencer Street. Of those five items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit application filed on May 16, 2021 for the $346,825 renovation of 11,251-square-foot A-3 building with one residential units at 16 Spencer Street. Of those five items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $27.5 million. The most recent of the two was Joel Schwartz which borrowed $8 million from Levon Capital secured by the 95,995-square-foot, 17-unit office building (O6) on 31 Spencer Street on August 11, 2022.
Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.