Israel Friedman signs $8M refi for 41-unit walkup in Williamsburg threatened with foreclosure

Israel Friedman through the entity South Lofts LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Signature Bank valued at $8 million for the 41-unit residential walkup building (C1) at 188 South 3rd Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

In August 2022, the lender Southeast Debt LLC filed a pre-foreclosure action against the 41-unit Williamsburg, Brooklyn, rental building at 188 South 3rd Street that was security for a $10 million loan Yoel Goldman signed for in 2017. LINK
The original lender Customers Bank sold the note to Kawa Capital Solutions, and Kawa sold it to Southeast Debt LLC on March 3, 2022.

The deal closed on January 18, 2023 and was recorded on January 25, 2023. The prior lender was Southeast Debt which held debt that had an original loan amount of $10 million. The property has 29,838 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $268 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 August 29, 2006, for $5 million. The signatory for Israel Friedman was Israel Friedman. The signatory for Signature Bank was Kenneth Stagnari.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes David Friedman, head officer and Naftali Gestetner, agent. The business entity is 188 South 3rd Street Llc. The 29,838-square-foot property generated revenue of $834,477 or $28 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 188 South 3rd Street parcel has frontage of 75 feet and is 95 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,125 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 $3.4 million.The most recent loan totaled 0.0 and was provided by Kawa Capital Solutions on June 24, 2021.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $10 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan filed on August 12, 2022, by SOUTHEAST DEBT LLC against Yoel Goldman. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received 36 housing violations and $1,350 in OATH penalties 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 block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 13 commercial properties representing 116,382 square feet of the 190,719 square feet. The largest owner is Stanislaw Majkut, followed by Moses Steinmetz and then Marian Okuniewski.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 24,125 square feet. It is a 30-unit, 24,125-square-foot R-2 building developed by Michael Reznik with plans filed August 7, 2014 and permitted June 3, 2022.

The majority, or 61 percent of the 190,719 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link