Chestnut Holdings pays $3.4M to Buckingham Properties for 22-unit walkup in Belmont

Chestnut Holdings through the entity 550 E Associates LLC paid $3.4 million to Buckingham Properties through the entity 550 E 182 LLC for 22-unit residential walkup building at 550 East 182nd Street in Belmont/Little Italy, Bronx.
The deal closed on March 23, 2022 and was recorded on April 4, 2022.
The property has 18,000 square feet of built space and 6,133 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 24,134 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $187 and the price per buildable square foot is $139 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 May 18, 2015, for $3.1 million. The signatory for Buckingham Properties was Richard Cohen. The signatory for Chestnut Holdings was Jonathan Wiener.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Chestnut Holdings purchased 41 properties in 36 transactions for a total of $231.9 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Buckingham Properties 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 Richard Cohen, head officer and Michael Kocovic, officer. The business entity is 550 E 182 Llc. The 18,000-square-foot property generated revenue of $351,478 or $20 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 550 East 182nd Street parcel has frontage of 49 feet and is 80 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,009 square feet. The zoning is C4-4D which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 6.02 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.1 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was not involved in any lawsuits or bankruptcies in the past years. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received 12 housing violations and $150 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 neighborhood

In Belmont/Little Italy, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 17.6 million square feet of commercial built space are residential walkup buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space. In sales, Belmont/Little Italy has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $73 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Belmont/Little Italy has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 643,422 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 23 commercial properties representing 57,585 square feet of the 294,339 square feet. The largest owner is Genesis Realty Group, followed by Israel Frankel and then L+M Development Partners. There are two active new building construction projects totaling 39,760 square feet. The largest is a 28-unit, 16,377-square-foot I-1 building developed by William Fernandez with plans filed June 22, 2017 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 22-unit, 23,383-square-foot R-2 building developed by Moses Freund with plans filed March 22, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 46 percent of the 172,509 square feet of built space are residential walkup buildings, with office buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently tracks Chestnut Holdings with at least 32 commercial properties with 1,434,297 square feet and a city-determined market value of $145.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $200.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as JPMorgan Chase, New York Community Bank, and Signature Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 53 percent of the 1,434,297 square feet of built space are residential walkup properties, with residential elevator properties next occupying 40 percent of the space. The bulk, or 70 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Manhattan next at 20 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 550 East 182nd Street, PincusCo identified seven commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those seven items, two were in new building development. There were one new building permit application and one new building permit. The most recent of these two items was a filing on March 22, 2022 for a 14,991-square-foot R-2 building with 22 residential units at 2176 Bathgate Avenue.
Of those seven items, two were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were one permit with a total initial cost of $1.4 million and one initial temporary certificate of occupancy issuance for a project that initially cost $1.4 million. The most recent of these two items was the temporary certificate of occupancy on February 8, 2021 for a 8,715-square-foot R-2 building with 20 residential units at 4415 3rd Avenue.
Of those seven items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $30.2 million. The most recent of the three was Genesis Realty Group which borrowed $8 million from Signature Bank secured by the 29,509-square-foot, nine-unit office building (O2) on 4419 3rd Avenue on January 13, 2022.

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