Dermot, Goldman Sachs pay $90M to RAL, China Vanke for 140-unit rental in Brooklyn Heights

Dermot Company and Goldman Sachs through the entity 15bpd Owner LLC paid $90 million to RAL Companies and China Vanke through the entity Landing B Associates LLC for a ground lease which controls the 140-unit residential elevator building (D6) at 15 Bridge Park Drive in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on January 25, 2023 and was recorded on January 27, 2023. The property has 137,945 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $652 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 signatory for RAL Companies was Robert A. Levine. The signatory for Dermot Company was Andrew Levison. This is the sale of a ground lease. The landlord is the nonprofit Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation. The Real Deal reported on the sale in September 2022, noting Goldman Sachs and Dermot were the buyers, and RAL Companies and China Vanke were the sellers.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Dermot Company purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $225.4 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller RAL Development Services 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 Robert Levine, head officer and Matthew D’Elia, site manager. The business entity is Landing B Associates Llc. The 137,945-square-foot property generated revenue of $6.3 million or $46 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 15 Bridge Park Drive parcel has frontage of 130 feet and is 76 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,880 square feet. The zoning is M2-1 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The property has a 421a exemption that started in 2019 and expires in 2055. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $38.3 million. The most recent loan totaled $71.5 million and was provided by United Overseas Bank on March 19, 2020.

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 one DOB violation in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on June 24, 2020. 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 two of the 34 commercial properties representing 137,945 square feet of the 705,668 square feet. The two identified owners are RAL Development Services and City of New York.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 274,550 square feet. It is a 122-unit, 274,550-square-foot R-2 building developed by Vincent Cangelosi with plans filed October 14, 2016 and permitted April 28, 2017.

The majority, or 78 percent of the 626,717 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that RAL Development Services owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 389,233 square feet and a city-determined market value of $74.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 65 percent of the 389,233 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 35 percent of the space. The bulk, or 65 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 35 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Dermot Company owned at least six commercial properties in New York City with 1,788,471 square feet and a city-determined market value of $405.2 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $529.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as Helaba, Signature Bank, and Capital One respectively. Within the portfolio, all identified are elevator properties. The bulk, or 68 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 32 percent of the space.

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