Bruklyn Builders signs $25.9M refi with S3 Capital for dev site in Turtle Bay

Bruklyn Builders through the entity 303 East 44th St LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender S3 Capital through the entity S3 Re 303 E 44th St Funding LLC valued at $25.9 million for the development parcel (V1) at 303-305 East 44th Street in Turtle Bay, Manhattan.
The deal closed on September 11, 2025 and was recorded on September 22, 2025. The prior lender was W Financial which held debt that had an original loan amount of $21.5 million. The property has a total buildable of 45,620 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per buildable square foot is $566 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 owner bought the property on June 28, 2011, for $16 million. The signatory for Bruklyn Builders was David Halberstam . The signatory for S3 Capital was Joshua Crane .

The property

The parcel has frontage of 47 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,562 square feet. The zoning is C1-9 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.7 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 received $12,500 in ECB penalties and $21,870 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Turtle Bay, The bulk, or 36 percent of the 9 million square feet of commercial built space are specialty buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space. In sales, Turtle Bay has the 40th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in Manhattan with $68.6 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Turtle Bay has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 178,885 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the 14 commercial properties representing 789,855 square feet of the 1,337,242 square feet. The largest owner is United Nations Development Corporation, followed by Brodsky Organization and then Kanamori America.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 69 percent of the 1.3 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Bruklyn Builders owned at least five commercial properties with 70 residential units in New York City with 19,515 square feet and a city-determined market value of $4.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $76 million in debt, with top three lenders as Zions Bancorporation, S3 Capital, and LMF Commercial respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 38 percent of the 19,515 square feet of built space are retail properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 32 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

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