Investmates signs $5M refi for retail in Williamsburg
Investmates Real Estate & Development through the entity 153 Berry Premium LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Eliyahu Barbi valued at $5 million for the retail building (K2) at 153 Berry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on April 2, 2025 and was recorded on April 16, 2025. The prior lender was Ellington Management Group which held debt that had an original loan amount of $4.7 million.
The property has 5,960 square feet of built space and 1,550 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 7,500 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $838 and the price per buildable square foot is $666 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 March 5, 2020, for $3 million. The signatory for Investmates Real Estate & Development was Jacob Telyas . The signatory for Eliyahu Barbi was Eliyahu Barbi.
The property
The retail building in Williamsburg has 5,960 square feet of built space and 1,550 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 7,500 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,500 square feet. The zoning is M1-2/R6A which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 3 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.6 million.
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 not received any significant violations in the last year.
Development
For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on May 17, 2023. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.
The neighborhood
In Williamsburg, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 50.4 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 4th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg has 2.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 2nd highest in Brooklyn. It had 3 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.
The block
On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 21 commercial properties representing 19,702 square feet of the 63,789 square feet. The largest owner is L3 Capital, followed by Empire State Realty Trust and then Status Capital.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 14,986 square feet. The largest is a 7,496 square-foot mercantile (M) building submitted by Domenic Lanni with plans filed July 26, 2021 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 7,490 square-foot mercantile (M) building submitted by Benjamin Stokes with plans filed September 27, 2016 and it has not been permitted yet.
The majority, or 45 percent of the 63,789 square feet of built space are mixed-use buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space.
The borrower
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Investmates Real Estate & Development owned at least one commercial property with 10 residential units in New York City with 13,435 square feet and a city-determined market value of 0.0. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single D1 property. It is located in Brooklyn.
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