Bruman Realty signs $75M refi with Greystone & Co. for 165-unit project in Astoria
Bruman Realty through the entity Fourth Fee LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Greystone & Co. through the entity Greystone Servicing Company LLC valued at $75 million for the 165-unit project at 26-25 4th Street in Astoria, Queens.
The deal closed on September 29, 2023 and was recorded on October 10, 2023. The prior lender was Scale Lending which held debt that had an original loan amount of $65.9 million.
On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 165-unit, 288,907 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Solomon Feder of Bruman Realty with plans filed September 8, 2020 and permitted March 10, 2022.
The owner bought the property on November 2, 2020, for $14.4 million. The signatory for Bruman Realty was Joseph Brunner. The signatory for Greystone & Co. was Barbari Masi.
The property
The development building in Astoria has 30,721 square feet of built space and 91,282 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 91,282 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 375 feet deep with a total lot size of 37,565 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 $2.1 million. The most recent loan totaled $65.9 million and was provided by Slate Property Group on September 20, 2021.
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 two DOB violations, and $50,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.
The neighborhood
In Astoria, The bulk, or 36 percent of the 40.2 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space. In sales, Astoria has 3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 2nd highest in Queens. For development, Astoria has 3 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 4th highest in Queens. It had 3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 8 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other development buildings in the past 12 months.
The block
On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 10 commercial properties representing 315,349 square feet of the 329,269 square feet. The largest owner is Yolanda Rivera Nunez, followed by Stella Mavrikos and then Sophia Shanfen Zhang.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 535,755 square feet. The largest is a 165-unit, 288,907 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Solomon Feder|Bruman Realty and filed by Solomon Feder with plans filed September 8, 2020 and permitted March 10, 2022. The second largest is a 143-unit, 165,221 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Shan Fen Zhang and filed by Shan Fen Zhang with plans filed December 29, 2014 and permitted April 27, 2022.
The majority, or 92 percent of the 329,269 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space.
The borrower
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Bruman Realty owned at least 19 commercial properties with 492 residential units in New York City with 381,282 square feet and a city-determined market value of $67.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $560.4 million in debt, with top three lenders as Starwood Capital Group, Slate Property Group, and Bank Hapoalim respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 34 percent of the 381,282 square feet of built space are N3 properties, with elevator properties next occupying 17 percent of the space. The bulk, or 64 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 21 percent of the space.
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