Hudson Companies signs $85M construction loan for 178-unit development in Crown Heights
Hudson Companies through the entity Nostrand Green LLC as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender Santander Bank valued at $85 million for the development building (V1) at 975 Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 178-unit, 183,182 square-foot residential (R-2) building. The project was submitted by Hudson Companies and filed by Sally Gilliland with plans filed November 12, 2021 and permitted May 16, 2022.
The deal closed on March 19, 2024 and was recorded on March 27, 2024. The prior lender was Wells Fargo which held debt that had an original loan amount of $24.9 million.
The owner bought the property on August 25, 2021, for $41.5 million. The signatory for Hudson Companies was David Kramer. The signatory for Santander Bank was John Gunther-Mohr.
The property
The development building in Crown Heights has 15,932 square feet of built space and 211,976 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 211,976 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 239 feet and is 187 feet deep with a total lot size of 61,621 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R7-1 which allows for up to 3.44 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.3 million. The most recent loan totaled $24.9 million and was provided by Wells Fargo on December 15, 2021.
Violations and lawsuits
There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $15,000 in ECB penalties and $16,315 in OATH penalties in the last year.
The neighborhood
In Crown Heights, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 46.5 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 36 percent of the space. In sales, Crown Heights has 1.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $531.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 13th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Crown Heights has 2.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 6th highest in Brooklyn. It had 2.5 million 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.
The block
On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 14 commercial properties representing 64,012 square feet of the 160,736 square feet. The largest owner is Raj Ramsaran, followed by Hudson and then Colin K. Cohen.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 273,729 square feet. The largest is a 178-unit, 183,182 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Hudson Companies and filed by Sally Gilliland with plans filed November 12, 2021 and permitted May 16, 2022. The second largest is a 49-unit, 73,117 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Colin Cohen and filed by Colin Cohen with plans filed August 14, 2019 and permitted June 3, 2022.
The majority, or 68 percent of the 160,736 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space.
The borrower
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Hudson Companies owned at least 61 commercial properties with 2,381 residential units in New York City with 2,550,872 square feet and a city-determined market value of $310.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $668 million in debt, with top three lenders as MLN Partners, CitiBank, and Apollo Global Management respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 69 percent of the 2,550,872 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 26 percent of the space. The bulk, or 96 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 4 percent of the space.
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