Jacob Berger pays $5M to Eric Moran, Rick Gropper for 17-unit walkup in Bedford Stuyvesant

Jacob Berger through the entity Lafayette Ave Equities LLC paid $5 million to Eric Moran and Rick Gropper through the entity 729 Lafayette Mgm LLC for the 17-unit residential walkup building (C1) at 729 Lafayette Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on December 30, 2022 and was recorded on February 7, 2023. The property has 17,600 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $286 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 seller bought the property on January 21, 2015, for $5.4 million. The signatory for Eric Moran and Rick Gropper was Rick Gropper. The signatory for Jacob Berger was Jacob Berger.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has no record that the buyer Jacob Berger had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Eric Moran had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Eric Moran, head officer and Hunter Reisel, site manager. The business entities are Choice Ny Management and 729 Lafayette Mgm Llc. The 17,600-square-foot property generated revenue of $442,894 or $25 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 729 Lafayette Avenue parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,000 square feet. The zoning is R6B which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.4 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 received 46 housing violations and $450 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 13 of the 19 commercial properties representing 165,394 square feet of the 190,339 square feet. The largest owner is Yigal Adar, followed by South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation and then Ran David.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 15,843 square feet. The largest is a eight-unit, 5,849-square-foot R-2 building developed by Matthew Ahdoot with plans filed December 1, 2014 and it has not been permitted yet.The second largest is a six-unit, 5,000-square-foot R-2 building developed by Cyrous Akhavan with plans filed July 13, 2015 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 71 percent of the 190,339 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Eric Moran owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 17,600 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single walkup property. It is located in Brooklyn.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Jacob Berger owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 120,570 square feet and a city-determined market value of $14.2 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $20 million in debt, borrowed from New York Community Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 100 percent of the 120,570 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with industrial properties next occupying 0 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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