Express Builders signs $23M refi with Castellan for dev site in Soundview

Express Builders through the entity Boynton Properties 2 LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Castellan Capital through the entity 1580 Story LLC valued at $23 million for the development site at 1580 Story Avenue in Soundview, Bronx.
The deal closed on August 30, 2024 and was recorded on September 4, 2024. The prior lender was Blackstone Group which held debt that had an original loan amount of $20 million. The four tax parcels have zero square feet of built space and 990,973 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 990,973 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per buildable square foot is $23 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 Express Builders was Joel Braver. The signatory for Castellan Capital was Joel Hammer.

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

On these lots, there is a new building project, under job number X00756455, for a 562-unit, 1,369,694 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Express Builders and filed by Joel Braver with plans filed June 14, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The neighborhood

In Soundview, The majority, or 60 percent of the 21.7 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space. In sales, Soundview has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $178.9 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Soundview is the 7th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5.5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 25 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of Story Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the four commercial properties representing zero square feet of the zero square feet. The two identified owners are Joel Braver and Express Builders.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 2,739,343 square feet. The largest is a 562-unit, 1,369,694 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Express Builders and filed by Joel Braver with plans filed June 14, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 562-unit, 1,369,649 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Joel Braver and filed by Joel Braver with plans filed June 5, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet.

All properties are industrial.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Express Builders owned at least four commercial properties in New York City with 0.0 square feet and a city-determined market value of $2.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $10 million in debt, borrowed from Signature Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 0 percent of the 0.0 square feet of built space are development properties, with industrial properties next occupying 0 percent of the space.

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