Chaskel Landau pays $9M in Williamsburg for likely dev site

Chaskel Landau through the entity 303 Wythe Ave LLC paid $9 million to Bailey So through the entity Nhk Realty Inc. for industrial building at 303 Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on June 9, 2022 and was recorded on June 22, 2022. The property has 7,425 square feet of built space and 10,800 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 18,225 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,212 and the price per buildable square foot is $493 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 sale price implies this is a development purchase.
The signatory for Bailey So was Bailey So. The signatory for Chaskel Landau was Chaskel Landau.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has records that the buyer Chaskel Landau purchased three properties in three transactions for a total of $9.4 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Bailey So had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 7,425-square-foot property generated revenue of $135,466 or $18 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 303 Wythe Avenue parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 75 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,500 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 $594,000.

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 not received any significant violations 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 neighborhood

In Williamsburg, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 65.1 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space. In sales, Williamsburg has the 9th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg is the 6th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5.1 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 industrial buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 17 commercial properties representing 57,374 square feet of the 99,872 square feet. The largest owner is Harper Capital Partners, followed by Zalmen Biederman and then Katarzyna Kucia. There is one active new building construction project totaling 8,487 square feet. It is a three-unit, 8,487-square-foot R-2 building developed by Guy Mor with plans filed June 2, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

the majority, or 46 percent of the 170,840 square feet of built space are residential walkup buildings, with 1-4 family buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Chaskel Landau owned at least 21 commercial properties with 108,319 square feet and a city-determined market value of $19.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $18.5 million in debt, borrowed from Broadview Capital. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 69 percent of the 108,319 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 23 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 303 Wythe Avenue, Pincusco identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those five items, two were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were one permit applications with a total initial cost of $324,960 and one permit with a total initial cost of $283,000. The most recent of these two items was the filing on April 5, 2022 for a 3,104-square-foot R-3 building with one residential units at 96 South 2nd Street.
Of those five items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $91 million. The most recent of the three was Harper Capital Partners which borrowed $20 million from Popular Bank secured by the 13,537-square-foot, eight-unit rental (C1) on 84 South 1st Street and three other properties on May 18, 2022.

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