FBE Limited pays $51.5M to Laurence Kramer for possible dev site in Jamaica

FBE Limited through the entity Jamaica Village Owner LLC paid $51.5 million to Laurence Kramer through the entity 89th Jamaica Realty Company LLC for eight contiguous properties on a single block including the retail building (K4) at 89-01 165th Street in Jamaica, Queens, mixed-use building (K2) at 90-06 Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens, and retail building (K1) at 89-25 165th Street in Jamaica, Queens.
The deal closed on October 31, 2022 and was recorded on November 10, 2022. The eight properties have 65,362 square feet of built space and 464,823 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 529,980 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $787 and the price per buildable square foot is $97 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 Laurence Kramer was Laurence Kramer. The signatory for FBE Limited was Yehoshua Leib Fruchthandler. The contract was signed April 16, 2019.
To finance the transaction, FBE borrowed $50 million from Valley National Bank.

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 89-01 165th Street.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer FBE Limited purchased four properties in four transactions for a total of $116.5 million and sold three properties in three transactions for a total of $214.9 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Laurence Kramer had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. Out of the eight properties, seven with a total of 65,362 square feet of built space generated revenue of $4 million per year.

The property

The 89-01 165th Street parcel has frontage of 189 feet and is 215 feet deep with a total lot size of 40,635 square feet. The zoning is C4-5X which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 5 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $7.1 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received $750 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 $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Jamaica, the bulk, or 29 percent of the 27.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Jamaica has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $311.1 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 5th highest in Queens. For development, Jamaica has 3.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 4th highest in Queens. It had 3.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 12 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other retail buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 89-01 165th Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 14 commercial properties representing 25,000 square feet of the 175,077 square feet. The two identified owners are Sol Goldman Investments and 89th Jamaica Realty Company LLC.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 49 percent of the 175,077 square feet of built space are retail buildings, with office buildings next occupying 41 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that FBE Limited owned at least 29 commercial properties in New York City with 897,980 square feet and a city-determined market value of $123.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 67 percent of the 897,980 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with rental condo properties next occupying 20 percent of the space. The bulk, or 82 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 16 percent of the space.

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