CAVU Property signs $21M refi loan with Webster Bank for 41-unit elevator in Crown Heights

CAVU Property Group through the entity Prospect Land Acquisition, LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Webster Bank valued at $21 million for the midblock 41-unit residential elevator building at 550 Prospect Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on March 10, 2022 and was recorded on April 7, 2022. The prior lender was City National Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $16.7 million.

The property has 46,359 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $452 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 27, 2018, for $6 million. The signatory for CAVU Property Group was Steven Hurwitz. The signatory for Webster Bank was Yonathan Whitehouse. Steven Hurwitz is the Founder and CEO of CAVU Property Group Inc.

Prior sales and revenue

The 46,359-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.3 million or $29 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 550 Prospect Place parcel has frontage of 80 feet and is 104 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,852 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R6A which allows for up to 3 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1 million. The most recent loan totaled $16.7 million and was provided by City National Bank on March 4, 2020.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was not involved in any lawsuits or bankruptcies in the past years. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

On these lots, there is one active new building construction project for a 41-unit, 31,428-square-foot R-2 building. The project was developed by Steven Hurwitz with plans filed June 7, 2019 and permitted July 29, 2020.

The neighborhood

In Crown Heights, the bulk, or 27 percent of the 66.4 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space. In sales, Crown Heights has 1.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $336.3 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 11th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Crown Heights has 1.7 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 12th highest in Brooklyn. It had 1.6 million 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. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other residential elevator buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 26 commercial properties representing 110,327 square feet of the 417,650 square feet. The largest owner is Brookdale Hospital Medical Center, followed by Mark Scheiner and then David Werner Real Estate Investments. There is one active new building construction project totaling 31,428 square feet. It is a 41-unit, 31,428-square-foot R-2 building developed by Steven Hurwitz with plans filed June 7, 2019 and permitted July 29, 2020.

The majority, or 39 percent of the 446,865 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 550 Prospect Place, PincusCo identified seven commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those seven items, seven were loans above $5 million totaling $290.8 million. The most recent of the seven was Joel Jacobowitz which borrowed $12.7 million from Arbor Realty Trust secured by the 5,250-square-foot, eight-unit rental (C1) on 562 Park Place and three other properties on November 10, 2021.

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