Fort Greene, Bed Stuy properties in bankruptcy sell through $14.2M transfer

The entity Fulton Lex Classon II, LLC acquired control of four properties including the four-unit mixed-use building (S4) at 701 Fulton Street and the two-unit mixed-use building (S2) at 703 Fulton Street, both in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and the industrial building (F9) at 173 Lexington Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The transfer price was $14.2 million.

The deal closed on December 5, 2024 and was recorded on January 2, 2025. The four properties have 15,472 square feet of built space and 7,043 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 22,080 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $918 and the price per buildable square foot is $643 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.)
Juan Lopez, while his properties were under a cloud of foreclosure, put them into bankruptcy through case number 1-23-43777-jmm in 2023. An anonymous note buyer bought the note, PincusCo reported previously. Maltz Auctions scheduled a UCC auction for December 5, 2024, the date of the sale. The buyer is registered at Alchemy Ventures but representatives from that firm says they are not the owners, Alchemy is only the property manager.

Prior sales and revenue

The seller Juan Lopez had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owner according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is Juan Lopez, individual owner. Out of the four properties, one with a total of 15,472 square feet of built space generated revenue of $75,462 per year.

The property

The mixed-use building with 4 residential units in Fort Greene has 15,472 square feet of built space and 7,043 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 22,080 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 18 feet and is 49 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,303 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.3 million. The most recent loan totaled 0.0 and was provided by Fulton Lex Classon, LLC on June 20, 2023.

Violations and lawsuits

The properties were involved in zero lawsuits and one bankruptcy over the past two years. The bankruptcy was filed on October 18, 2023, by Juan P. Lopez citing assets of $7.7 million. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received $300 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 Fort Greene, The bulk, or 34 percent of the 12.5 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space. In sales, Fort Greene has 2.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $569.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 8th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Fort Greene has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 674,640 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 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 701 Fulton Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 21 commercial properties representing 92,776 square feet of the 128,309 square feet. The largest owner is Tredway, followed by Elh Mgmt. and then Juan Lopez.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 7,164 square feet. The largest is a six-unit, 3,764 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Avi Baranes with plans filed July 31, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a two-unit, 3,400 square-foot residential (R-3) building submitted by Melvin Berg with plans filed March 7, 2017 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 70 percent of the 128,309 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 29 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Juan Lopez owned at least four commercial properties with 10 residential units in New York City with 15,472 square feet and a city-determined market value of $5.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $7.7 million in debt, borrowed from Fulton Lexington Classon Associates LLC. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 76 percent of the 15,472 square feet of built space are mixed-use properties, with industrial properties next occupying 24 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

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