Charter school signs $43.9M construction loan with Build NYC for new location in Washington Heights

Friends Of WHIN Music Community Charter School,Inc as borrower signed a construction loan with lender Build NYC Resource Corporation valued at $43.9 million for the conversion and expansion of a garage building (G1) at 528 West 162nd Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan.

ParkIt Management, on August 31, filed plans for a $3.2 million project which aims to convert a parking garage to a school building at 528 West 162nd Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Gary Spindler filed the plans. The project will increase the building’s size by 25,548-square-feet.

The plans call for the increase in size of the building from a 44-foot tall, three-story building to a 115-foot tall, eight-story building. This was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number M00579245.

The loan closed on June 1, 2022 and was recorded on July 22, 2022.
The owner bought the property on June 22, 2015, for $6.6 million, then signed a lease with the school.

Prior sales and revenue

The 29,776-square-foot property generated revenue of $511,142 or $17 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 528 West 162nd Street parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 99 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,992 square feet. The zoning is R7-2 which allows for up to 3.44 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Washington Heights, the bulk, or 45 percent of the 65.9 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space. In sales, Washington Heights has 1.7 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $551.2 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 26th highest in Manhattan. For development, Washington Heights has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 24th highest in Manhattan. It had 926,982 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 1 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were two pre-foreclosure suit filed among other industrial buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 11 of the 29 commercial properties representing 163,648 square feet of the 399,088 square feet. The largest owner is SDG Management, followed by Albert Srour and then City Skyline Realty.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 38 percent of the 382,049 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 37 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 528 West 162nd Street, PincusCo identified two commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those two items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $12.4 million. The most recent of the two was Albert Srour which borrowed $7.2 million from Signature Bank secured by the 27,439-square-foot, three-unit mixed-use building (K2) on 2042 Amsterdam Avenue on August 27, 2021.

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