Hirshmark Capital buys $9.7M note on 15-unit rental in Astoria

Hirshmark Capital through the entity Astoria LIC Funding LLC bought a note with an original principal of $9.7 million from Kearny Bank secured by Matthew Schwartz’s 15-unit residential elevator building (D7) at 35-16 Astoria Boulevard South in Astoria, Queens.

The property is involved in one pre-foreclosure case. The suit is a $9.7 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan. The case was filed on August 11, 2023, by Kearny Bank against Scott Minuta and Matthew Schwartz. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $256,875 in ECB penalties, two housing violations, and $261,875 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The deal closed on February 7, 2024 and was recorded on February 21, 2024. The prior lender was Kearny Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $9.7 million.
The property has 14,114 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Matthew Schwartz, head officer and Scott Minuta, officer. The business entities are Schwartz Re Management Inc and 35-16 Astoria Blvd Holdings, Llc.

The property

The residential elevator building with 15 residential units in Astoria has 14,114 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 46 feet and is 73 feet deep with a total lot size of 3,385 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-3 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 2.43 times FAR for residential. The property has a 421a exemption that started in 2016 and expires in 2031. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.6 million.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on October 14, 2014. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 36 commercial properties representing 98,860 square feet of the 227,634 square feet. The largest owner is Styliani Moustakas, followed by Sebastiano Casabianca of Salvatore Casabianca and then Peak Capital Advisors.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 7,618 square feet. It is a 10-unit, 7,618 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Alex Mubarez with plans filed March 20, 2017 and permitted February 6, 2019.

The majority, or 58 percent of the 227,634 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 35 percent of the space.

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