JCAL Development plans 195-unit building in Mott Haven

Joshua Weissman, president of JCAL Development Group submitted a new building construction project for a 195-unit, 181,092 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 261 Walton Avenue in Mott Haven, Bronx. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on October 31, 2022 under job number X08028724. It calls for the construction of a 13-story building. The project is described in the filing as: application hereby submitted to construct 13-story mixed-use new building with inclusionary housing as per filed plans. The architect is Dattner Architects.

The property

The 281 Walton Avenue parcel has frontage of 258 feet and is 106 feet deep with a total lot size of 27,454 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-4/R6A which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 3 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.1 million. The most recent loan totaled $5.9 million and was provided by Low Income Investment Fund on June 28, 2022.

Prior sales and revenue

The industrial building in Mott Haven has 43,820 square feet of built space and 38,435 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 82,362 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.

The 43,820-square-foot property generated revenue of $560,896 or $13 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received six DOB violations, $20,000 in ECB penalties, and $20,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020.

The neighborhood

In Mott Haven, the bulk, or 42 percent of the 40.1 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Mott Haven has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $813.2 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the highest in Bronx. For development, Mott Haven is the 9th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 4.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 11 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 11 commercial properties representing 258,934 square feet of the 372,446 square feet. The largest owner is Altmark Group, followed by Beitel Group and then Family Life Academy Charter Schools. On the tax block, there were four new building construction projects totaling 753,371 square feet. The largest is a 470-unit, 306,893 square-foot R-2 building developed by Binyamin Beitel with plans filed January 13, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 195-unit, 181,092 square-foot R-2 building developed by Joshua Weissman with plans filed October 31, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 281 Walton Avenue, Pincusco identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those four items, two were in new building development. There were one new building permit application and one new building permit. The most recent of these two items was a permit on August 30, 2021 for a 135,106-square-foot R-2 building with 150 residential units at 310 Grand Concourse. One of those four items was a sale which John Holsapple bought the 25,348-square-foot, one-unit industrial (E9) on 287 Walton Avenue for $6.8 million from Kenneth Bukofser on January 26, 2022. One of those four items was a loan which John Holsapple borrowed $5.5 million from Provident Bank secured by the 25,348-square-foot, one-unit industrial (E9) on 287 Walton Avenue on February 1, 2022.

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