Herman Jakob files plans to create 8-unit building in Williamsburg, 5th NYC project for developer in 12 months

Herman Jakob submitted a major alteration application to convert a single-unit residential (RES) building at 97 Seigel Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to an eight-unit building. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on November 22, 2022 under job number B08043690. It call for the increase in the size of the building from a two-story building with one dwelling unit to a five-story building with eight dwelling units. The project is described in the filing as: proposed vertical enlargement and interior renovation, proposing a total of eight dwelling units and commercial space.
This is Herman Jakob’s fifth project filed over the past 12 months, which in total seek to create 72 residential units.

This project calls for retail and a single apartment on the first floor, two residential units each on floors two through four, and one unit on the fifth  floor, described as the penthouse floor.

The property

The mixed-use building in Williamsburg has 3,075 square feet of built space and 1,481 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 4,556 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The most recent property records in Acris indicated the parcel has been owned by David and Edna Fontanez. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 75 feet deep with a total lot size of 1,875 square feet. The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $381,000.

Prior sales and revenue

The 3,075-square-foot property generated revenue of $79,555 or $26 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received $50 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Williamsburg, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 50 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Williamsburg has the 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg is the 7th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 10 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other development buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 19 commercial properties representing 38,325 square feet of the 103,900 square feet. The largest owner is Nasser Ghorchian, followed by Center Street Capital and then Naftali Hager. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that David & Edna Fontanez owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 3,075 square feet and a city-determined market value of $381,000. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single mixed-use property. It is located in Brooklyn.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 97 Seigel Street, PincusCo identified two commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those two items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $29.1 million. The most recent of the two was Kassin Sabbagh Realty in which borrowed $5.2 million from Signature Bank secured by the 10,384-square-foot, 10-unit rental (D6) on 65 Graham Avenue on July 1, 2022.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.