Investors allege Watermark Capital excluded them from larger Ft. Greene plans

An entity affiliated with developers Mark Rigerman and Paul Jensen, BAMBH LLC, alleges it and affiliated entities including Strekte NY, LLC, invested nearly $12 million with a project publicly led by Wolfe Landau’s Watermark Capital Group in order for Watermark to complete the $15 million purchase of 144 St. Felix Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

The complaint alleges Landau disclosed confidential information to other property owners on the block without the complainants’ consent, contravening the parties’ operating agreement, in an effort to negotiate a deal for a larger project. The complaint seeks a court order blocking Landau from negotiating on behalf of the entity that owns the parcel at 144 St. Felix Street, among other relief.
Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.

Wolfe Landau is one of the city’s most prolific dealmakers, often negotiating purchases or ground leases with churches and other nonprofits. Watermark also controls a massive development site in Sunset Park.

Case 650542/2025 LINK

The complaint alleges Watermark has moved slowly on the project to stabilize and redevelop the 144 St. Felix Street church parcel because Landau has negotiated with neighboring property owners Gotham Organization and Brooklyn Music School to construct a property on a larger footprint, and did not include the BAMBH LLC individuals in those discussions. The complaint alleges Landau was not authorized to speak with the property owners without BAMBH LLC’s consent.

According to the complaint, “For this reason, the parties agreed that the closing would be funded by: (a) a short term loan in the amount of $4,000,000, from CDK Lending LLC (“CDK”); (b) the $8,000,000 from BAMBH; and (c) a $3,394,968.26 loan from Strekte NY, LLC (“Strekte”), an entity affiliated with the members of BAMBH. This brought the total amount funded by BAMBH and its affiliate entity, Strekte, to $11,394,968.26, while at the same time, the excess funds were used to pay off Landau’s $3,000,000 hard money loan.
“Landau had an extensive plan, which he laid out for the owners of the Gotham Property and the Brooklyn Music School, pursuant to which he sought to move the Brooklyn Music School’s entire operation into the Property, and to then build residential units on the property currently owned by the Brooklyn Music School.”

The property

The property in Fort Greene has 65,500 square feet of built space and 99,010 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 164,470 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 165 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 16,447 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C6-4 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Brooklyn Academy of Music Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $8.4 million. The most recent loan totaled $10.5 million and was provided by S3 Capital on August 22, 2024.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold by Hanson Place Central Methodist Episcopal Church for $15 million to Watermark Capital Group on June 27, 2024.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received six DOB violations, $20,555 in ECB penalties, and $23,755 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $15 million judgment concerning a leave to sell filed on March 4, 2024, by Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church against Watermark Capital Group and Wolfe Landau.

The neighborhood

In Fort Greene, The bulk, or 34 percent of the 12.5 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space. In sales, Fort Greene has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $578.2 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 8th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Fort Greene has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 21st highest in Brooklyn. It had 674,640 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

There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Watermark Capital Group owned at least 139 commercial properties with 1,591 residential units in New York City with 1,656,550 square feet and a city-determined market value of $321.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $221.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as Slate Property Group, BridgeCity Capital, and Signature Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 50 percent of the 1,656,550 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 18 percent of the space. The bulk, or 89 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 6 percent of the space.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 17 Hanson Place, PincusCo identified one commercial real estate item of interests occurred over the past 24 months. It was a loan which Madison International Realty borrowed $93 million from Citibank and Goldman Sachs secured by one condo unit in the 389,125-square-foot, two-unit mixed-use building (RC) on 139 Flatbush Avenue on October 28, 2024.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.