Gindi Capital signs $14.2M construction loan with Israel Discount Bank for two retail properties in Fordham Heights

Gindi Capital through the entity Gch Fordham Road LLC as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender Israel Discount Bank valued at $14.2 million for two retail properties including the midblock retail building at 2511 Marion Avenue in Fordham Heights, Bronx and retail building at 350 East Fordham Road in Fordham Heights, Bronx.
The deal closed on May 5, 2022 and was recorded on May 23, 2022. The prior lender was Israel Discount Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $8.5 million.The two properties have 41,247 square feet of built space and 12,062 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 53,278 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $343 and the price per buildable square foot is $265 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 Gindi Capital was Jack Braha. This is all new construction debt on top of an $8.5 million land loan given in May 2021 that remains on the property.

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 2511 Marion Avenue.

The property

The 2511 Marion Avenue parcel has frontage of 75 feet and is 84 feet deep with a total lot size of 12,488 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-4 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 3.44 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $6.8 million.The most recent loan totaled $8.5 million and was provided by Israel Discount Bank on May 13, 2021.

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 one DOB violation, $5,000 in ECB penalties, and $5,000 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 Fordham Heights, the bulk, or 43 percent of the 17.5 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 33 percent of the space. In sales, Fordham Heights has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $101 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Fordham Heights has 2.8 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 4th highest in Bronx. It had 2.5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 14 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 2511 Marion Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 24 commercial properties representing 143,515 square feet of the 283,533 square feet. The largest owner is Gindi Capital, followed by Ellen Joseph and then Denali Management. There is one active new building construction project totaling 42,831 square feet. It is a 57-unit, 42,831-square-foot R-2 building developed by Kim Tasher with plans filed March 28, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 43 percent of the 344,464 square feet of built space are residential walkup buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Gindi Capital owned at least nine commercial properties with 259,541 square feet and a city-determined market value of $26.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $62.5 million in debt, borrowed from Israel Discount Bank and Goldman Sachs. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 61 percent of the 259,541 square feet of built space are development properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 23 percent of the space. The bulk, or 61 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 23 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 2511 Marion Avenue, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those four items, four were loans above $5 million totaling $34.2 million. The most recent of the four was Marshall G. Rose which borrowed $10.1 million from Arbor Realty Trust secured by the 33,564-square-foot, 27-unit rental (C1) on 2463 Marion Avenue and one other property on December 3, 2021.

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