Firebird Grove signs $17M refi with Derby Copeland in Greenwich Village

Firebird Grove through the entity OR Patchin Place, LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Derby Copeland Capital through the entity Cf Dcope Fin LLC valued at $17 million for 11 properties with 35 residential units including the four-unit mixed-use building (S4) at 9 Patchin Place in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, five-unit residential walkup building (C2) at 7 Patchin Place in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, and 1-4 family building (A4) at 1 Patchin Place in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.

Firebird Grove and its investor Oculus Realty paid $32 million for the properties in March 2022.
The deal closed on February 2, 2024 and was recorded on February 22, 2024. The prior lender was Ladder Capital which held debt that had an original loan amount of $21 million.The 11 properties have 27,807 square feet of built space and 9,755 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 35,698 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $611 and the price per buildable square foot is $476 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 Firebird Grove was Adam J. Semler. The signatory for Derby Copeland Capital was Jesse Hutcher.

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 9 Patchin Place.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Marla Siegel, head officer and Jair Gutierrez, site manager. The business entity is Or Patchin Place Llc. Out of the 11 properties, two with a total of 27,807 square feet of built space generated revenue of $317,896 per year.

The property

The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Greenwich Village Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.1 million. The most recent loan totaled $21 million and was provided by Ladder Capital on March 4, 2022.

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

For the tax lot buildings, one out of the 11 buildings received a initial certificate of occupancy in the last ten years. 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 Greenwich Village, The bulk, or 24 percent of the 22.4 million square feet of commercial built space are specialty buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space. In sales, Greenwich Village has 3.1 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $917.2 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 11th highest in Manhattan. For development, Greenwich Village has 2.9 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 9th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.8 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 13 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 9 Patchin Place, PincusCo has identified the owners of 20 of the 38 commercial properties representing 187,642 square feet of the 254,281 square feet. The largest owner is R.A. Cohen & Associates, followed by George Schwarz and then Firebird Grove.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 32 percent of the 254,281 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Firebird Grove owned at least 45 commercial properties with 376 residential units in New York City with 335,967 square feet and a city-determined market value of $153.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $20 million in debt, with top three lenders as Bank of America, Derby Copeland Capital, and Signature Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 56 percent of the 335,967 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 30 percent of the space. The bulk, or 51 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 49 percent of the space.

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