Chess Builders pays $19.6M for dev site in Williamsburg

Chess Builders paid $19.6 million for a development site in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, composed of three tax lots sold in two transactions.

In the larger, Chess Builders through the entity Meserole Lorimer Realty LLC paid $15.5 million to the estate of the late landlord Gregory Pasternak through the entity Browar Corp. for the industrial building (E9) at 56 Meserole Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The expected use is ground up development. The owner filed a Department of Buildings permit applications in December to demolish the structure.
The deal closed on January 28, 2026 and was recorded on February 11, 2026. The property has 27,800 square feet of built space and 8,700 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 36,450 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $557 and the price per buildable square foot is $425 per the PincusCo analysis.

In the smaller transaction, with property fronting Lorimer Street, Chess Builders through the entity Meserole Lorimer Realty LLC paid $4.1 million to the estate of the late Gregory Pasternak for the industrial building (E9) at 346 Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and and adjacent property (G7) on Meserole Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The expected use is ground up development.
The deal closed on January 28, 2026 and was recorded on February 11, 2026. The two properties have 2,160 square feet of built space and 9,993 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 12,150 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,898 and the price per buildable square foot is $337 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 Gregory Pasternak , who died in 2024, was Lucille Frumin. The signatory for Chess Builders was Cheskel Schwimmer . The contract date was January 28, 2026.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Chess Builders purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $80 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Gregory Pasternak had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The industrial building in Williamsburg has 27,800 square feet of built space and 8,700 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 36,450 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 150 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 15,000 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 $2.8 million.

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 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 $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Williamsburg, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 50.4 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Williamsburg has the 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.9 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg is the 2nd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 42.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 83 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 16 commercial properties representing 132,774 square feet of the 194,040 square feet. The largest owner is Sterling Equities, followed by Yidel Hirsch and then Cheskel Schwimmer.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 47 percent of the 194,040 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Chess Builders owned at least six commercial properties with 336 residential units in New York City with 171,007 square feet and a city-determined market value of $28.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $493.4 million in debt, with top three lenders as MF1 Capital, Valley National Bank, and S3 Capital respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 45 percent of the 171,007 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with office properties next occupying 34 percent of the space. The bulk, or 63 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 37 percent of the space.

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