Fereidoon Behin signs $8.6M refi for four properties in Ridgewood

Fereidoon Behin through the entity Myrtle Ave Development Partners 2 LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Ready Capital through the entity Readycap Commercial, LLC valued at $8.6 million for four properties with two residential units including the mixed-use building (K9) at 56-50 Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens, mixed-use building (K4) at 56-48 Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens, and retail building (K4) at 56-52 Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens.
The deal closed on January 10, 2024 and was recorded on January 22, 2024. The prior lender was Ready Capital which held debt that had an original loan amount of $8.1 million.
The four properties have 16,400 square feet of built space and 10,208 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 26,598 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $525 and the price per buildable square foot is $324 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 Fereidoon Behin was Fereidoon Behin. The signatory for Ready Capital was Melissa Perez.

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 56-50 Myrtle Avenue.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Fereidoon Behin, head officer and Nicholas Larosa, officer. The business entity is Myrtle Ave Development Llc. Out of the four properties, three with a total of 16,400 square feet of built space generated revenue of $444,250 per year.

The property

The mixed-use building in Ridgewood has 16,400 square feet of built space and 10,208 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 26,598 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 20 feet and is 135 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,699 square feet. The zoning is C4-3A which allows for up to 3 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 3 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.1 million. The most recent loan totaled $7.5 million and was provided by Ready Capital on December 21, 2020.

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 received $1,450 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 Ridgewood, The bulk, or 38 percent of the 20 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 29 percent of the space. In sales, Ridgewood has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $330.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 5th highest in Queens. For development, Ridgewood has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 423,868 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other mixed-use buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 56-50 Myrtle Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 20 commercial properties representing 43,419 square feet of the 127,831 square feet. The largest owner is Leopold Kaufman, followed by Issac Azizian and then Fereidoon Behin.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 51,813 square feet. The largest is a 60-unit, 44,311 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Leopold Kaufman and filed by Leo Kaufman with plans filed January 2, 2020 and permitted August 20, 2021. The second largest is a 10-unit, 7,502 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Haroutun Mikaelian with plans filed December 11, 2014 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 69 percent of the 127,831 square feet of built space are mixed-use buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Fereidoon Behin owned at least five commercial properties with six residential units in New York City with 20,579 square feet and a city-determined market value of $4.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $7.5 million in debt, borrowed from Ready Capital. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 82 percent of the 20,579 square feet of built space are mixed-use properties, with retail properties next occupying 18 percent of the space. The bulk, or 80 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Brooklyn next at 20 percent of the space.

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