Express Builders pays $3.1M to religious group for two dev parcels in Williamsburg

Joel Braver’s Express Builders through the entity 100 Rutledge LLC paid $3.1 million to the religious group Kahal Toldos Tzvi D’Spinka for the development parcels (V0) at 100 and 102 Rutledge Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on April 18, 2024 and was recorded on May 3, 2024. The two properties have zero square feet of built space and 9,720 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 9,720 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $318 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 Kahal Toldos Tzvi D’Spinka was Meilech Spitzer. The signatory for Express Builders was Joel Braver. The contract date was December 20, 2023.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 100 Rutledge Street.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Express Builders had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Kahal Toldos Tzvi D’Spinka had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 20 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,000 square feet. The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $279,000.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have 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 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 4th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg has 4.1 times the average amount of major developments relative to 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 the tax block of 100 Rutledge Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the seven commercial properties representing 7,470 square feet of the 46,386 square feet. The identified owner is Chaim Tauber.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 14,146 square feet. It is a four-unit, 14,146 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Leo Klein with plans filed June 28, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 62 percent of the 46,386 square feet of built space are retail buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 38 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Express Builders owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 0.0 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $10 million in debt, borrowed from Signature Bank. Within the portfolio, all identified are industrial properties.