Joel Mittelman, Yaakov Lefkowitz sign $7.9M construction loan for 35-unit project in Mt Hope

Joel Mittelman and Yaakov Lefkowitz through the entity Townsend Partners LLC as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender IceCap Group through the entity Icecap Real Estate Loan Fund I, LLC valued at $7.9 million for a 35-unit project at 1677 Townsend Avenue in Mt Hope, Bronx.
The deal closed on January 18, 2022 and was recorded on February 11, 2022. The prior lender was IceCap Group which held debt that had an original loan amount of $1.6 million.
The property has 3,349 square feet of built space and 16,658 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 20,016 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $1,877 and the price per buildable square foot is $314 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 owner bought the property on July 22, 2021, for $1.9 million.
The signatory for Joel Mittelman and Yaakov Lefkowitz was Joel Mittelman and Yaakov Lefkowitz. The signatory for IceCap Group was Ezra Dweck.
(X00487406) Plans for a 35-unit, 27,081 square-foot R-2 were filed on August 4, 2021.
In Mt Hope, the majority, or 53 percent of the 12.5 million square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Mt Hope has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $60.5 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Mt Hope has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 734,472 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.
On the tax block, the majority, or 53 percent of the 81,680 square feet of built space are 1-4 family buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space.

Within a 400-foot radius of 1677 Townsend Avenue, PincusCo identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those five items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit issued on February 26, 2021 for a 19,692-square-foot hotel (R-1) building with 60 residential units at 1665 Jerome Avenue.
Of those five items, two were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were two permit applications with a total initial cost of $1.2 million. The most recent of these two items was the filing on January 27, 2022 for a 7,796-square-foot R-2 building with 18 residential units at 1712 Townsend Avenue.

One of those five items was a loan which Prakash Kumar Patel borrowed $9 million from Ponce Bank secured by the 0-square-foot development site (V1) on 1665 Jerome Avenue on June 10, 2021.

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