Eugene Mendlowitz signs $7M loan with Brick Bush for vacant lot in Flatiron District

Eugene Mendlowitz through the entity 42 West 18th St. Realty Corp. as borrower signed an initial loan with lender Brick Bush Capital valued at $7 million for the vacant parking lot at 41 West 17th Street in Flatiron District, Manhattan.
The deal closed on April 4, 2023 and was recorded on April 6, 2023. The property has zero square feet of built space and 68,990 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 68,990 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is not available and the price per buildable square foot is $101 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 Eugene Mendlowitz was Eugene Mendlowitz.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 184 feet deep with a total lot size of 6,899 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C6-4A which allows for up to 10 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 $1.5 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations 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 Flatiron District, The majority, or 71 percent of the 23.2 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Flatiron District has 4 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 10th highest in Manhattan. For development, Flatiron District has 1.5 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 19th 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 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 11 of the 23 commercial properties representing 681,052 square feet of the 1,197,867 square feet. The largest owner is Solil Management, followed by Norman Kurlan and then Moinian Group.
On the tax block, there were five new building construction projects totaling 170,492 square feet. The largest is a 53-unit, 90,478 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Toll Brothers and filed by Clark Joseph with plans filed April 18, 2014 and permitted January 21, 2015. The second largest is a 13-unit, 23,384 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Gary Vinbaytel with plans filed February 14, 2020 and permitted March 15, 2022.

The majority, or 81 percent of the 1.2 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 13 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Eugene Mendlowitz owned at least one commercial property with 22 residential units in New York City with 17,390 square feet and a city-determined market value of None. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single walkup property. It is located in Manhattan.

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