Chabad Lubavitch pays $3.9M to Davean Holdings for 9-unit walkup in Brooklyn Heights

UPDATED 9:05 a.m., September 9, 2024: Chabad Lubavitch Of Brooklyn Heights through the entity Chabad Lubavitch Of Brooklyn Heights 128 Montague paid $3.9 million to Davean Holdings through the entity 128 Montague St LLC for the nine-unit residential walkup building (C7) at 128 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on August 23, 2024 and was recorded on September 6, 2024. The property has 8,022 square feet of built space and 1,086 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 9,116 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $479 and the price per buildable square foot is $422 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 seller bought the property on February 17, 2021, for $2.8 million. The signatory for Davean Holdings was Sean Lefkovits. The signatory for Chabad Lubavitch Of Brooklyn Heights was Aaron L. Raskin, Schneur Z. Pil, and Avrohom Eliyahu Raskin. The contract date was April 26, 2024. NYREJ reported in 2021 that Conway Capital and Davean Holdings were the buyers at the time, but Conway was no longer an owner at the time of this sale, according to a person familiar with the deal.

Lev Mavashev of Alpha Realty brokered both sides of this transaction, and arranged a $2.5 million bridge loan from Grand Financial Management.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Chabad Lubavitch of Brooklyn Heights had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Davean Holdings had not purchased any other properties and sold eight properties in six transactions for a total of $87.5 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Abe Cohen, head officer and Jay Gelb, site manager. The business entities are Arya Management Llc and 128 Montague St Llc. The 8,022-square-foot property generated revenue of $364,520 or $45 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The residential walkup building with 9 residential units in Brooklyn Heights has 8,022 square feet of built space and 1,086 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 9,116 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 26 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,650 square feet. The zoning is R7-1 which allows for up to 3.44 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.3 million. The property has 4 rent regulated units according to city tax records from 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 $5,060 in ECB penalties, 22 housing violations, and $5,440 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 $1 million on this tax lot.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 16 of the 20 commercial properties representing 126,865 square feet of the 166,939 square feet. The largest owner is Juan Rivera, followed by Conway Capital and then Russell Harkavy.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 39 percent of the 166,939 square feet of built space are mixed-use buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 36 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Davean Holdings owned at least 15 commercial properties with 124 residential units in New York City with 121,132 square feet and a city-determined market value of $37.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 58 percent of the 121,132 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 35 percent of the space. The bulk, or 66 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 34 percent of the space.

Correction: In a prior version of this post, Conway Capital was included as a seller, but they were no longer involved at the time of sale. In addition, Sean Lefkovits surname was misspelled, and has been corrected.

Updated: Broker added.

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