CIM Group acquires LENY Group’s 40-unit mixed-use Williamsburg property through bankruptcy

CIM Group through the entity 190 Berry (Brooklyn) Owner, LLC acquired the mixed-use 40-unit residential elevator building with additional retail (D5) with an address of 190 Berry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which the LENY Group and its entity LENY Berry Holdings LLC, lost in a bankruptcy process. The city transfers valued the property at $55.7 million. The expected use is cash flowing.
The transfer closed on June 30, 2025 and was recorded on July 16, 2025. The property has 101,358 square feet of built space and 8,032 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 109,533 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $549 and the price per buildable square foot is $508 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 April 30, 2015, for $92.2 million. The signatory for LENY Group was restructuring professional Ephraim Diamond . The signatory for CIM Group was David Thompson . The contract date was June 30, 2025.

Property records show CIM Group bought the debt from Waterfall Asset Management on the same day as the closing, and simultaneously obtained a $41.27 million loan from Truist Bank.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer CIM Group purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $48.6 million and sold nine properties in four transactions for a total of $196.6 million over the past 24 months.
The seller LENY Group 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 Rudy Gabsi, head officer and Barry Stojku, site manager. The business entities are Waterstone Group Llc and Leny Berry Holdings Llc.

The property

The residential elevator building with 40 residential units in Williamsburg has 101,358 square feet of built space and 8,032 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 109,533 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 225 feet and is 162 feet deep with a total lot size of 36,511 square feet. The zoning is M1-2/R6A which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 3 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property has a J-51 exemption that started in 2012 and expires in 2026. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $26.8 million. The property has 17 rent regulated units according to city tax records from 2023.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and two bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $82 million money judgment concerning a loan filed on May 23, 2024, by Waterfall Asset Management and WF CREL 2020 Grantor Trust against Ruby Gabsi and LENY Group. The highest value bankruptcy was filed on July 17, 2024, by LENY Group and Rudy Gabsi citing assets of $80.3 million. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $12,090 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

There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 100 percent of the 101,358 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with development buildings next occupying 0 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that CIM Group owned at least seven commercial properties with 732 residential units in New York City with 2,631,832 square feet and a city-determined market value of $507 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 57 percent of the 2,631,832 square feet of built space are office properties, with D6 properties next occupying 43 percent of the space. The bulk, or 69 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 31 percent of the space.

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