Oren Neria pays $9.9M for foreclosed Ashkenazy retail in Lincoln Square

Oren Neria through the entity 2067 Broadway Owner LLC, paid $9.9 million for the office and retail building (O6) at 2067 Broadway in Lincoln Square, Manhattan, which Ashkenazy Acquisition lost in a foreclosure sale.
The deal closed on December 28, 2023 and was recorded on January 18, 2024. The property has 20,790 square feet of built space and 9,959 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 30,740 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $476 and the price per buildable square foot is $322 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 April 11, 2014, for $20 million. The signatory for the court was referee Jerry Merola. The signatory for buyer entity was Erick Vallely. The contract date was November 14, 2023.

Ben Ashkenazy’s Ashkenazy Acquisition lost the property in a foreclosure action, 850181/2022. Jerry Merola is a court-appointed referee. Erick Vallely is an attorney. The buyer entity, 2067 Broadway Owner LLC is controlled by managing member JBN 4 LLC.

Prior sales and revenue

The seller Ashkenazy Acquisition purchased four properties in one transaction for a total of $6.2 million and sold three properties in three transactions for a total of $240.8 million over the same time period.

The property

The office building in Lincoln Square has 20,790 square feet of built space and 9,959 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 30,740 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 32 feet and is 88 feet deep with a total lot size of 3,074 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-6A which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.8 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $11.6 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan filed on September 15, 2022, by Valley National Bank against Ashkenazy Acquisition, ASG Equities, and Ben Ashkenazy. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $50 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Lincoln Square, The majority, or 61 percent of the 19.1 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space. In sales, Lincoln Square has the 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Lincoln Square has 1.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 18th highest in Manhattan. It had 1.6 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 eight of the 23 commercial properties representing 159,885 square feet of the 397,218 square feet. The largest owner is Peak Capital Advisors, followed by Marc Wigder and then James Nicholson.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 35,764 square feet. The largest is a 19-unit, 30,504 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by SK Development and filed by Scott Shnay with plans filed December 7, 2017 and permitted August 6, 2019. The second largest is a two-unit, 5,260 square-foot residential (R-3) building submitted by Mary Margaret Chan with plans filed November 19, 2020 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 64 percent of the 397,218 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Ashkenazy Acquisition owned at least seven commercial properties in New York City with 481,635 square feet and a city-determined market value of $88.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $132.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as Benefit Street Partners, Wilmington Trust, and Bank of Montreal respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 71 percent of the 481,635 square feet of built space are retail properties, with industrial properties next occupying 18 percent of the space. The bulk, or 44 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Manhattan next at 28 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Oren Neria owned at least seven commercial properties with 26,450 square feet, 22 residential units and a city-determined market value of $10.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $11 million in debt, borrowed from Investors Bank and Signature Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 67 percent of the 26,450 square feet of built space are mixed-use properties, with walkup properties next occupying 33 percent of the space. The bulk, or 67 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 33 percent of the space.

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