David Kramer pays $29.8M to Joel Schwartz for two new construction in Brooklyn

David Kramer paid $29.8 million to Joel Schwartz for two new buildings in Brooklyn in two separate transactions.

In the first, David Kramer through the entity DK Kings 3 LLC paid $24.4 million to Joel Schwartz through the entity 494 Manhattan LLC for development building (V1) at 494 Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 23-unit, 15,800 square-foot R-2 building. The project was developed by Yisroel Greenfeld with plans filed February 5, 2020 and permitted November 10, 2021.
The deal closed on December 28, 2022 and was recorded on January 5, 2023.
The seller bought the property on January 29, 2020, for $6.2 million. The signatory for Joel Schwartz was Joel Schwartz. The signatory for David Kramer was David Kramer.

In the second, David Kramer through the entity Dk Kings 2 LLC paid $5.4 million to Joel Schwartz through the entity 438 Union Ave LLC for development building (V1) at 438 Union Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that received its initial certificate of occupancy on December 30, 2022. The deal closed on December 28, 2022 and was recorded on January 5, 2023. The seller bought the property on May 8, 2019, for $3.1 million. The signatory for Joel Schwartz was Joel Schwartz. The signatory for David Kramer was David Kramer.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer David Kramer had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Joel Schwartz purchased 15 properties in 11 transactions for a total of $67.5 million and sold 23 properties in 20 transactions for a total of $191.1 million over the same time period.

The property

The 494 Manhattan Avenue parcel has frontage of 176 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,183 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-2/R6 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 2.43 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $359,000.The most recent loan totaled $18.5 million and was provided by BridgeCity Capital on August 31, 2022.

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 received $19,375 in ECB penalties and $19,375 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Greenpoint, the bulk, or 30 percent of the 22.7 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space. In sales, Greenpoint has 1.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $679.2 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 7th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Greenpoint has 3.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 6th highest in Brooklyn. It had 3.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 15 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joel Schwartz owned at least 76 commercial properties in New York City with 863,774 square feet and a city-determined market value of $131 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $758.7 million in debt, with top three lenders as BridgeCity Capital, Citibank, and Starwood Capital Group respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 51 percent of the 863,774 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 20 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

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