Horizon Group signs $25M construction loan with Bank Hapoalim for 66-unit project in Bushwick

Horizon Group through the entity Horizon At 391 Weirfield LLC as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender Bank Hapoalim valued at $25 million for the industrial building (G2) at 378 Weirfield Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

On these lots, there is one active new building construction project for a 66-unit, 43,260-square-foot residential (R-2) building. The project was developed by Horizon Group with plans filed November 17, 2020 and permitted September 30, 2021.
The loan closed on August 8, 2022 and was recorded on August 17, 2022. The prior lender was Bank Hapoalim which held debt that had an original loan amount of $5.3 million. The property has 1,200 square feet of built space and 6,222 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 7,411 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $20,833 and the price per buildable square foot is $3,373 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 owner bought the property on October 30, 2020, for $7 million. The signatory for Horizon Group was David Marom. The signatory for Bank Hapoalim was Yaroslav Portuhay.

The property

The 378 Weirfield Street parcel has frontage of 30 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 3,050 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 $126,000.The most recent loan totaled $7.7 million and was provided by Bank Hapoalim on October 30, 2020.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $5,000 in ECB penalties and $5,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Bushwick, the bulk, or 44 percent of the 33.4 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Bushwick has 2.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $978.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 3rd highest in Brooklyn. For development, Bushwick has 1.8 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 11th highest in Brooklyn. It had 2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were two pre-foreclosure suit filed among other industrial buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the six commercial properties representing 14,500 square feet of the 18,805 square feet. The two identified owners are Horizon Group and Yung Ching Siu.
There is one active new building construction project totaling 43,260 square feet. It is a 66-unit, 43,260-square-foot R-2 building developed by David Marom with plans filed November 17, 2020 and permitted September 30, 2021.

The majority, or 77 percent of the 18,805 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Horizon Group owned at least eight commercial properties in New York City with 121,241 square feet and a city-determined market value of $14.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $85.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as Bank Leumi, NewBank, and TD Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 57 percent of the 121,241 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with hotel properties next occupying 21 percent of the space. The bulk, or 79 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 21 percent of the space.

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