Hysen Mehmetaj pays $4.7M to Alex Adjmi for retail in Westchester Square

Hysen Mehmetaj through the entity 35 Equities LLC paid $4.7 million to Alex Adjmi’s ACHS Management through the entity 35 Westchester Square LLC for midblock retail building at 35 Westchester Square in Westchester Square, Bronx.
The deal closed on May 5, 2022 and was recorded on May 16, 2022. The property has 3,400 square feet of built space and 4,862 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,262 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,382 and the price per buildable square foot is $568 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 ACHS Management was Alex Adjmi. The signatory for Hysen Mehmetaj was Hysen Mehmetaj.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has records that the buyer Hysen Mehmetaj purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $18.7 million and sold four properties in four transactions for a total of $36.6 million over the past 24 months.
The seller ACHS Management had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 3,400-square-foot property generated revenue of $186,110 or $55 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 35 Westchester Square parcel has frontage of 31 feet and is 132 feet deep with a total lot size of 3,400 square feet. The lot is irregular. 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 $1 million.

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 not received any significant violations 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 Westchester Square, the bulk, or 32 percent of the 8.1 million square feet of commercial built space are 1-4 family buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space. In sales, Westchester Square has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $104.3 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Westchester Square has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 253,141 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 10 commercial properties representing 111,501 square feet of the 132,535 square feet. The largest owner is Bawabeh Holdings, followed by Gontar Management and then Eddie Serure. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

the majority, or 40 percent of the 137,117 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that ACHS Management owned at least 58 commercial properties with 1,103,241 square feet and a city-determined market value of $443.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $76.6 million in debt, borrowed from Signature Bank and Citibank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 71 percent of the 1,103,241 square feet of built space are retail properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 28 percent of the space. The bulk, or 47 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 20 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Hysen Mehmetaj owned at least three commercial properties with 186,390 square feet and a city-determined market value of $10.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $13.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as New York Community Bank, Capital One, and PIMCO respectively. Within the portfolio, all identified are residential elevator properties. They are all located in Bronx.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 35 Westchester Square, PincusCo identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those five items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was an initial temporary certificate of occupancy issued on December 1, 2020 for the $675,000 renovation of 21,886-square-foot M building with residential units at 25 Westchester Square.
One of those five items was a sale which Gontar Management bought the 55,272-square-foot, 67-unit rental (D6) on 1400 Benson Street for $11.2 million from Rudin Management on December 31, 2020.
Of those five items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $24.2 million. The most recent of the three was Eddie Serure which borrowed $5.6 million from Signature Bank secured by the 27,100-square-foot, two-unit retail building (K1) on 34 Westchester Square on February 15, 2022.

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