Joel Schwartz pays $3.7M for 8-unit dev site in Williamsburg

Joel Schwartz through the entity 624 Metropolitan LLC paid $3.7 million to Joseph Dougherty through the entity Red Thumb Development, LLC for the development site (V1) at 624 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for an eight-unit, 11,464 square-foot residential (R-2) building. The project was submitted by Christian Pompa with plans filed February 25, 2019 and permitted June 1, 2022.
The sale closed on August 24, 2023 and was recorded on September 1, 2023. The sale price per square feet of the building plan is $322 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 January 25, 2016, for $2.8 million. The signatory for Joseph Dougherty was Joseph Dougherty. The signatory for Joel Schwartz was Joel Schwartz. The contract date was March 24, 2023.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Joel Schwartz purchased 18 properties in 15 transactions for a total of $71.6 million and sold 27 properties in 24 transactions for a total of $264.3 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Joseph Dougherty had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Christian Pompa, head officer and John Hot, site manager. The business entities are Red Thumb Development, Llc and Red Thumb Development, Llc.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,499 square feet. The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $222,000.

Violations and lawsuits

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

The neighborhood

In Williamsburg, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 50.4 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 5th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.6 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg is the 9th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 4.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 8 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 16 commercial properties representing 31,500 square feet of the 73,017 square feet. The largest owner is Paul Corvino, followed by Nunzio Cirone and then Michael Fortunato.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 20,050 square feet. The largest is a eight-unit, 11,464 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Christian Pompa with plans filed February 25, 2019 and permitted June 1, 2022. The second largest is a 10-unit, 8,586 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Amleto Mazza with plans filed September 8, 2017 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 60 percent of the 73,017 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 40 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joel Schwartz owned at least 77 commercial properties with 878 residential units in New York City with 923,606 square feet and a city-determined market value of $164.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $855.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as BridgeCity Capital, Citibank, and Popular Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 52 percent of the 923,606 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 19 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

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