Developer Joel Schwartz pays $5.3M to Moses Guttman for 20-unit dev site in Williamsburg

Joel Schwartz through the entity North 7 Apartments LLC paid $5.3 million to Moses Guttman through the entity Gold North 7 LLC for the industrial building (F5) at 310 North 7th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on September 23, 2022 and was recorded on October 5, 2022. The property has 6,600 square feet of built space and 14,025 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 20,655 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $795 and the price per buildable square foot is $254 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 November 14, 2014, for $2.4 million. The signatory for Moses Guttman was Moses Guttman. The signatory for Joel Schwartz was Joel Schwartz.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Joel Schwartz purchased 17 properties in 13 transactions for a total of $70.7 million and sold 18 properties in 15 transactions for a total of $138.4 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Moses Guttman purchased seven properties in three transactions for a total of $9.9 million and sold three properties in three transactions for a total of $4 million over the same time period.

The property

The 310 North 7th Street parcel has frontage of 49 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 8,500 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 $316,000.

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 three DOB violations, $18,750 in ECB penalties, and $45,150 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 20-unit, 13,784 square-foot R-2 building. The project was developed by Yisroel Greenfeld with plans filed April 4, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The neighborhood

In Williamsburg, the bulk, or 39 percent of the 50 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Williamsburg has the 7th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.9 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg is the 9th 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 9 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other industrial buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 10 commercial properties representing 59,448 square feet of the 76,587 square feet. The largest owner is Chris Cielepak, followed by GFP Real Estate and then On Chuen Lam.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 19,193 square feet. The largest is a 20-unit, 13,784-square-foot R-2 building developed by Yisroel Greenfeld with plans filed April 4, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.The second largest is a five-unit, 5,408-square-foot R-2 building developed by Wallace Lau with plans filed April 7, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 47 percent of the 75,316 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 35 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Moses Guttman owned at least 21 commercial properties in New York City with 82,880 square feet and a city-determined market value of $25.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $5.5 million in debt, borrowed from Piermont Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 41 percent of the 82,880 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with B1 properties next occupying 17 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joel Schwartz owned at least 80 commercial properties in New York City with 899,290 square feet and a city-determined market value of $142.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $704.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as Citibank, BridgeCity Capital, and Starwood Capital Group respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 50 percent of the 899,290 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 22 percent of the space. The bulk, or 98 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 2 percent of the space.

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