Downtown Capital to acquire All Year’s 3.8 acre Gowanus parcel

By Adam Pincus

White Plains, NY-based lender Downtown Capital Partners will acquire the 3.8 acre brownfield development site at 459 Smith Street in Gowanus from All Year Management, according to documents filed with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange this month.

Downtown Capital, led by Gary Katz, lent $55 million to Yoel Goldman’s All Year Management in 2019, just over two years after All Year bought the site for $48 million in July 2017. At the time of the purchase, The Real Deal reported the Hakim Organization and Property Markets Group were minority owners in the acquisition. Those companies were not mentioned in the TASE filing.

Downtown Capital declared those loans in default in 2020 the Commercial Observer reported and at the time of this filing earlier this month, the debt, interest and penalties allegedly totaled $70 million.

The overall sale price was not provided. The documents says All Year will receive $18 million paid in several phases and also the loans will be repaid.

A May 2019 appraisal valued the parcel at $166 million, stating the site has 165,840 square feet of land and a current floor area ratio of 2 for commercial uses. It notes that a rezoning proposal could provide a floor area ratio of 5, which would allow for a development of 829,200 square feet.

An August 2020 report from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said the site remains a brownfield cleanup and that remediation at the time was under way to remove hazardous contaminated sold and to create a barrier between the site and the adjacent Gowanus Canal.