CB-Emmanuel Realty pays $12 million for 6 Harlem walkups

CB-Emmanuel Realty, a major affordable housing developer, paid $12 million to the West Harlem Community Organization for six residential walkup properties in Harlem with a total of 89 units in two transactions, and borrowed $32.8 million from the Community Preservation Corporation for renovation and maintenance of affordable housing. CB-Emmanuel Realty as beneficial owner acquired the properties in conjunction with the nonprofit Settlement Housing Fund.

In the first transaction, CB-Emmanuel Realty through the entity WHCB 2023 LLC paid $10.8 million to West Harlem Community Organization through the entity Lenox And Pennamon Housing Development Fund Corp. for the 21-unit residential walkup building (C7) at 100 Lenox Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan, the 20-unit residential walkup building (C7) at 208 St Nicholas Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan, and 11-unit residential walkup building (C4) at 104 West 114th Street in Harlem, Manhattan.
The deal closed on February 28, 2023 and was recorded on March 17, 2023. The five properties have 75,110 square feet of built space and 12,800 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 84,388 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $144 and the price per buildable square foot is $128 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 West Harlem Community Organization was William R. Fried. The signatory for CB-Emmanuel Realty was R. Christopher Bramwell Jr. The contract date was July 14, 2017.

CB-Emmanuel Realty through the entity WHCB 2023 LLC paid $1.2 million to West Harlem Community Organization through the entity 157 West 119 Street Housing Development Fund Corp for 20-unit residential walkup building (C4) at 157 West 119th Street in Harlem, Manhattan. The deal closed on February 28, 2023 and was recorded on March 17, 2023.The property has 10,835 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $108 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 West Harlem Community Organization was William R. Fried. The signatory for CB-Emmanuel Realty was R. Christopher Bramwell Jr. The contract date was July 14, 2017.

At the same time, CB-Emmanuel Realty through the entity WHCB 2023 LLC as borrower signed a rehabilitation construction loan with lender Community Preservation Corporation through the entity CPC Funding SPE 1 LLC valued at $31.8 million for the six walkups.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 208 St Nicholas Avenue.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer CB-Emmanuel Realty had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller West Harlem Community Organization had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Jerome White, head officer and Jeanna Graves, agent. The business entities are Shinda Management Corp and Lenox & Pennamon HDFC. The five properties with a total of 75,110 square feet of built space generated revenue of $1.2 million per year or $16 per square foot. The sale price per square foot was $144.

The property

The 208 St Nicholas Avenue parcel has frontage of 118 feet and is 68 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,673 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R8A which allows for up to 6.02 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.4 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received six DOB violations, $38,115 in ECB penalties, 89 housing violations, and $47,005 in OATH penalties 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 block

On the tax block of 208 St Nicholas Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 13 commercial properties representing 186,979 square feet of the 242,069 square feet. The largest owner is NYC Department of Education, followed by NY Residential Works and then Ethan Rozenblatt.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 33 percent of the 242,069 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that CB-Emmanuel Realty owned at least 83 commercial properties in New York City with 1,771,888 square feet and a city-determined market value of $134.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 47 percent of the 1,771,888 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 45 percent of the space. The bulk, or 75 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Bronx next at 18 percent of the space.

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