Jeff Sutton of Wharton Properties pays $7.1M for possible dev site in Kingsbridge

Jeff Sutton of Wharton Properties through the entity 3627 Kingsbridge Ave LLC paid $7.1 million to George Kaperonis through the entity Snowcap, LLC for the Riverdale Diner building (K5) at 3657 Kingsbridge Avenue in Kingsbridge, Bronx and two adjacent parking lots.
The deal closed on December 20, 2023 and was recorded on January 2, 2024. The three properties have 4,800 square feet of built space and 10,198 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 14,997 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,479 and the price per buildable square foot is $473 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 George Kaperonis was Tina Kaperonis. The signatory for Wharton Properties was Jeff Sutton. The contract date was January 31, 2023. The diner, opened by George and Anna Kaperonis in 1967, like most restaurants was negatively impacted during Covid, according to an article in the New York Times. Bronx Times reported the diner was operating as of April 2022 when there was a fire.  Yelp reports the diner is permanently closed.

George Kaperonis originally signed a contract January 31, 2023, with Jorge Madruga’s Maddd Equities, a developer. The contract was later assigned to Jeff Sutton.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Wharton Properties purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $6.7 million and sold two properties in two transactions for a total of $19.1 million over the past 24 months.
The seller George Kaperonis had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. Out of the three properties, one with a total of 4,800 square feet of built space generated revenue of $231,408 per year.

The property

The mixed-use building in Kingsbridge has 4,800 square feet of built space and 10,198 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 14,997 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,999 square feet. The zoning is R4 which allows for up to 0.75 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.1 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

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 Kingsbridge, The bulk, or 32 percent of the 6.2 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 29 percent of the space. In sales, Kingsbridge has the 25th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in Bronx with $52.2 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Kingsbridge has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 364,417 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 10,118 square feet. It is a 10-unit, 10,118 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Costa Ioannou with plans filed July 24, 2019 and permitted April 27, 2022.

The majority, or 67 percent of the 97,360 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 16 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Wharton Properties owned at least 86 commercial properties with 190 residential units in New York City with 3,769,832 square feet and a city-determined market value of $2 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $705.8 million in debt, with top three lenders as Aareal Capital, JPMorgan Chase, and Valley National Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 72 percent of the 3,769,832 square feet of built space are office properties, with retail properties next occupying 17 percent of the space. The bulk, or 87 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 10 percent of the space.

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