Double U files plans for 89K sf sports center in Williamsburg
83 Wythe Avenue (Credit - Cyclomedia)
Michael Weitzman, CEO of Double U Development submitted a new building construction project for a 88,680 square-foot retail and office building at 83 Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on August 6, 2024 under job number B01084172. It calls for the construction of a four-story building. The project is described in the filing as: proposed four (4) story + cellar commercial building. Weitzman filed the plan under the company Spearhead Contracting LLC. The architect is Archimaera Architecture.
10 years earlier, Cayuga Capital Management filed plans for a two-story, 68,499-square-foot retail building, under job number 320626792. That plan was never permitted, instead, Cayuga Capital Management sold the parcel for $20 million to Double U Development on June 22, 2022. The site is currently a vacant lot.
83 Wythe Avenue
| wdt_ID | floor | comment | description | persons_permitted | occupancy_label | zoning_use | dwelling_units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cellar | MECHANICAL ROOMS | Mechanical and/or electrical equipment room | 6 | Factory and Industrial | VI, VIII | |
| 2 | Cellar | FITNESS AND RECREATION SPORT CENTER | Recreation | 187 | Assembly | VIII | |
| 3 | Open Space | THREE (3) LOADING BERTHS, PARKING ENTRY | Parking Garage | 19 | Storage | VI, VIII | |
| 4 | 1 | RETAIL SPACE 1 (116 OCC), RETAIL SPACE 2 (66 OCC), RETAIL SPACE 3 (66 OCC), RETAILS SPACE 4 (158 OCC), RETAIL SPACE 5 (26 OCC) | Retail Sale | 432 | Mercantile | VI | |
| 5 | 1 | LOBBY | Recreation | 63 | Assembly | VIII | |
| 6 | 2 | PARKING; TOTAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOUR (164) AUTOMOBILE PARKING SPACES | Parking Garage | 87 | Storage | VI, VIII | |
| 7 | 2 | MECHANICAL AND PACKAGE ROOM, TOTAL OF TWENTY (20) BICYCLE PARKING SPACES | Storage of non combustible Materials | 7 | Storage | VI, VIII | |
| 8 | Roof Terrace - 2 | MECHANICAL TERRACE | Mechanical and/or electrical equipment room | 1 | Factory and Industrial | VI, VIII | |
| 9 | 3 | FITNESS AND RECREATION SPORT CENTER | Recreation | 317 | Assembly | VIII | |
| 10 | Roof Terrace - 3 | TERRACES | Recreation | 69 | Assembly | VIII | |
| 11 | 4 | FITNESS AND RECREATION SPORT CENTER | Recreation | 412 | Assembly | VIII | |
| 12 | Roof Terrace - 4 | TERRACES | Recreation | 33 | Assembly | VIII | |
| 13 | Roof | STAIR BULKHEADS, ELEVATOR BULKHEADS | Retail Sale | 0 | Mercantile | VI, VIII |
The property
The retail building in Williamsburg has 1,860 square feet of built space and 42,948 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 44,738 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 149 feet and is 157 feet deep with a total lot size of 22,369 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-2 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1 million. The most recent loan totaled $14.8 million and was provided by G4 Capital Partners on June 22, 2022.
Prior sales and revenue
The 1,860-square-foot property generated revenue of $104,084 or $56 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.
Violations and lawsuits
According to city public data, the property has received $500 in OATH penalties in the last year.
There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.
The neighborhood
In Williamsburg, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 50.4 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 5th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 2nd highest in Brooklyn. 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.
The block
On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the three commercial properties representing 36,928 square feet of the 36,928 square feet. The two identified owners are Cayuga Capital Management and Double U Development. On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 157,179 square feet. The largest is a 88,680 square-foot 69 building submitted by Double U Development and filed by Michael Weitzman with plans filed August 6, 2024 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 68,499 square-foot mercantile (M) building submitted by Cayuga Capital Management and filed by James Wiseman with plans filed September 9, 2014 and it has not been permitted yet.
The owner
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Double U Development owned at least six commercial properties with 106 residential units in New York City with 115,885 square feet and a city-determined market value of $21.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $173.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as Gim Commercial Mortgage Loan Fund, S3 Capital, and United Nations Federal Credit Union respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 50 percent of the 115,885 square feet of built space are mixed-use properties, with elevator properties next occupying 36 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.
The surrounding
Within a 400-foot radius of 90 North 11 Street, PincusCo identified six commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those six items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $136.3 million. The most recent of the two was Quadrum Global which bought the 78,215-square-foot, 159-unit hotel (H2) on 96 Wythe Avenue for $96 million from Heritage Equity Partners and Heritage Equity Partners bankrupt on May 2, 2023. Of those six items, four were loans above $5 million totaling $131.5 million. The most recent of the four was Solomon Jacobowitz in which borrowed $24.5 million from Greystone & Co. secured by two condo units in the 38,494-square-foot, 41-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 111 North 10th Street on May 23, 2023.
Correction: A prior version of this post used the name Double U Realty, but the company is known as Double U Development.
Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.