Coliving firm Cohabs pays $3M for 4-unit in Bedford Stuyvesant

The coliving investment firm Cohabs through the entity 645 Putnam LLC paid $3 million to Ensman Alexander for four-unit building (C3) at 645 Putnam Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on January 25, 2023 and was recorded on February 10, 2023.The property has 6,509 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $468 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 March 31, 2006, for $514,100. The signatory for Ensman Alexander was Ensman Alexander. The signatory for Cohabs was James Patrick Grasso.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has records that the buyer Cohabs purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $7.5 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Ensman Alexander 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 Ensman Alexander, individual owner and Larry Lewis, site manager.

The property

The 645 Putnam Avenue parcel has frontage of 23 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,300 square feet. The zoning is R6B which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $731,300.

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 block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the five commercial properties representing 10,480 square feet of the 18,978 square feet. The largest owner is Yosef Emergi, followed by Joseph Anscher and then Jacob Isaac Hirsch.
there are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

the majority, or 55 percent of the 18,978 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 45 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Cohabs owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 14,600 square feet and a city-determined market value of $3.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 61 percent of the 14,600 square feet of built space are C3 properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 39 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

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