Joel Brach of Buildhouser paid $9.5M for Morrisania dev site

Joel Brach paid $9.5 million in four transactions to several owners for five adjacent vacant lots, 1091 Washington Avenue, 1097 Washington Avenue, and 447-451 East 166th Street, making a corner at Washington Avenue and East 166th Street in Morrisania, the Bronx. The entire parcel is about 112 feet by 96 feet.

In September 2021, a new building construction project was filed for a 25-unit, 25,480 square-foot residential (R-2) building with the address 453 East 166th Street, but sources said Brach is likely to build a larger project, but the Department of Building plans still reflect the 25 units. That project is on these five tax lots.  Joel Brach of Buildhouser Inc. is now listed as the owner of that project. An Emil Friedman filed the original plans.

Next door to this site, 1103 Washington Avenue and 1109 Washington Avenue sold for $3.3 million, and were recorded yesterday.

In the first, Joel Brach through the entity Washington E166 LLC paid $4.5 million to Radame Perez II through the entity Blvd Twelve, LLC for the industrial building (G7) at 1091 Washington Avenue in Morrisania, Bronx. The expected use is ground up development.
The deal closed on July 18, 2024 and was recorded on August 14, 2024. The property has zero square feet of built space and 24,296 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 24,296 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $N/A and the price per buildable square foot is $185 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 Radame Perez II was Radame Perez II. The signatory for Joel Brach was Joel Brach. The contract date was November 17, 2023.

In the second, Joel Brach through the entity Washington E166 LLC paid $3.9 million to 447-451 East 166 Street Realty LLC for the industrial building (G7) at 449 East 166th Street in Morrisania, Bronx and industrial building (G7) at 451 East 166th Street in Morrisania, Bronx. The deal closed on July 18, 2024 and was recorded on August 14, 2024. The two properties have zero square feet of built space and 17,726 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 17,726 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $N/A and the price per buildable square foot is $222 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 447-451 East 166 Street Realty LLC was Geoffrey Hersko. The signatory for Joel Brach was Joel Brach. The contract date was February 6, 2024.

In the third, Joel Brach through the entity Washington E166 LLC paid $1.1 million to Ramone A. Perez as president of the entity 78 A.C. Enterprises Ltd. for the industrial building (G7) at 1097 Washington Avenue in Morrisania, Bronx.
The deal closed on July 18, 2024 and was recorded on August 14, 2024. The property has zero square feet of built space and 8,094 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,094 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $N/A and the price per buildable square foot is $135 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.)

In the fourth, Joel Brach paid $10,000 for 447 East 166th Street. It was not immediately clear why the transfer value was so low.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Joel Brach had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Radame Perez II had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The zoning is M1-1/R7-2 which allows for up to 1 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 3.44 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $359,000.

The neighborhood

In Morrisania, The majority, or 52 percent of the 25.4 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space. In sales, Morrisania has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $249 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 2nd highest in Bronx. For development, Morrisania has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 422,329 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 36 commercial properties representing 70,559 square feet of the 186,316 square feet. The largest owner is Workforce Housing Group, followed by Josephine Ahenkora and then Al-Ridwane Muslim Center.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 50,104 square feet. The largest is a 25-unit, 25,480 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Emil Friedman and filed by Emil Friedman with plans filed September 9, 2021 and permitted April 29, 2022. The second largest is a 30-unit, 24,624 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development and filed by Rona Reodica with plans filed September 22, 2023 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 39 percent of the 186,316 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space.

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