Jack Guttman’s Pearl Realty pays $11M to Vanbarton for office in LIC, 2018 loan was $17.4M

Jack Guttman’s Pearl Realty Management through the entity 47-10 Austell LLC paid $11 million to the Vanbarton Group through the entity Eib Austell LLC for the office building (O5) at 47-16 Austell Place in Long Island City, Queens. The expected use is cash flowing. The sale price is below a multi-advance term loan with a maximum principal of $17.4 million written in April 2018, but above the price Vanbarton Group paid for the property, which was $7.7 million in February 2015.
The deal closed on September 19, 2024 and was recorded on October 2, 2024. The property has 51,200 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $214 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 Vanbarton Group was Damiano Buffa. The signatory for Pearl Realty Management was Alan Weiss. The contract date was July 9, 2024.
Jack Guttman sold a large development site in Downtown Brooklyn to Jay Group for $75 million in August, and last month the developer filed initial plans for a series of residential towers that will have a total of 450 units.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Pearl Realty Management had purchased any other properties and sold 10 properties in five transactions for a total of $238.6 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Vanbarton Group purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $3 million and sold 33 properties in four transactions for a total of $628.7 million over the same time period.

The property

The office building in Long Island City has 51,200 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 160 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 16,000 square feet. The zoning is M1-4 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $7.2 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 received $1,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on April 3, 2018. 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 Long Island City, The bulk, or 32 percent of the 60.2 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space. In sales, Long Island City has the 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Long Island City is the 7th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 9 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the seven commercial properties representing 153,812 square feet of the 336,452 square feet. The largest owner is Bldg Management, followed by New York Police Department and then Lirr.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 85 percent of the 336,452 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with office buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Vanbarton Group owned at least 20 commercial properties with 1,122 residential units in New York City with 2,405,966 square feet and a city-determined market value of $875.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.4 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Blackstone Group, Blackstone Mortgage Trust, and New York Life Insurance Company respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 69 percent of the 2,405,966 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 16 percent of the space. The bulk, or 92 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Bronx next at 8 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Pearl Realty Management owned at least 62 commercial properties with eight residential units in New York City with 1,081,080 square feet and a city-determined market value of $148 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 65 percent of the 1,081,080 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with office properties next occupying 16 percent of the space. The bulk, or 73 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Bronx next at 19 percent of the space.

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