Jacob Schwimmer pays $2.2M for dev site in Williamsburg

Jacob Schwimmer through the entity 344 Lorimer Realty LLC paid $2.2 million to Jared E. Paioff through the entity Bp344 Lorimer LLC for the development parcel (V0) at 344 Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on December 5, 2022 and was recorded on December 13, 2022. The property has zero square feet of built space and 5,467 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 5,467 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $397 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 July 2, 2018, for $2 million. The signatory for Jared E. Paioff was Jared E. Paioff. The signatory for Jacob Schwimmer was Jacob Schwimmer. At the same time, Jacob Schwimmer obtained a $4.65 million construction loan.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Jacob Schwimmer purchased three properties in two transactions for a total of $50 million and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $50 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Jared E. Paioff had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The 344 Lorimer Street parcel has frontage of 30 feet and is 75 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,250 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 $360,000.

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 $1,000 in ECB penalties and $1,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a five-unit, 6,698 square-foot R-2 building. The project was developed by Robert Bagdadi with plans filed January 26, 2015 and it has not been permitted yet.

The neighborhood

In Williamsburg, the bulk, or 39 percent of the 50 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 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg is the 7th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 10 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other development buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 16 commercial properties representing 132,774 square feet of the 194,040 square feet. The largest owner is Sterling Equities, followed by Yidel Hirsch and then Cheskel Schwimmer.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 6,698 square feet. It is a five-unit, 6,698-square-foot R-2 building developed by Robert Bagdadi with plans filed January 26, 2015 and permitted January 10, 2019.

The majority, or 47 percent of the 194,040 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Jacob Schwimmer owned at least 14 commercial properties in New York City with 775,399 square feet and a city-determined market value of $89.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $323.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as Valley National Bank, Spruce Capital, and Bank Leumi respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 46 percent of the 775,399 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with office properties next occupying 40 percent of the space. The bulk, or 62 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Bronx next at 38 percent of the space.

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