CW Realty Group in contract to buy dev site in Gowanus

CW Realty Group through the entity 296 4th LLC signed a contract to buy from Vincent Nicastro and Joseph Nicastro through the entity Vjn Real Estate Corp. the industrial building (GW) at 296 4th Avenue in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on November 15, 2022 and was recorded on November 21, 2022. The property has 10,960 square feet of built space.
The signatory for Vincent Nicastro and Joseph Nicastro was Vincent Nicastro and Joseph Nicastro. The signatory for CW Realty Group was Cheskie Weisz. The closing is expected February 13, 2023.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer CW Realty Group had purchased any other properties and sold six properties in five transactions for a total of $12.8 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Vincent Nicastro had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The 296 4th Avenue parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 187 feet deep with a total lot size of 16,435 square feet. The lot is irregular.

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 Gowanus, the bulk, or 47 percent of the 9.3 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space. In sales, Gowanus has 1.5 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $510 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 12th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Gowanus is the 8th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 4.6 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 50 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the nine commercial properties representing 7,590 square feet of the 56,997 square feet. The identified owner is Avery Hall Investments.
On the tax block, there were four new building construction projects totaling 187,196 square feet. The largest is a 128-unit, 104,140-square-foot R-2 building developed by Alexander Cutrona with plans filed December 14, 2021 and permitted June 10, 2022. The second largest is a 66-unit, 49,165-square-foot R-2 building developed by Joseph Vogel with plans filed November 15, 2021 and permitted May 26, 2022.

The majority, or 95 percent of the 56,997 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 5 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that CW Realty Group owned at least 26 commercial properties in New York City with 289,791 square feet and a city-determined market value of $54.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 49 percent of the 289,791 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 39 percent of the space. The bulk, or 89 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 7 percent of the space.

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