Joel Schwartz pays $4.2M for dev site in Williamsburg

Developer Joel Schwartz through the entity 22 Frost St LLC paid $4.2 million to Jarrett Huddleston through the entity 22 Frost LLC for the development building (V1) at 22 Frost Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The expected use is ground up development.
The deal closed on August 1, 2024 and was recorded on August 7, 2024. The property has zero square feet of built space and 9,376 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 9,376 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $447 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 Jarrett Huddleston was Jarrett Huddleston. The signatory for Joel Schwartz was Joel Schwartz. The contract date was November 2, 2023.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Joel Schwartz purchased 18 properties in 16 transactions for a total of $60.5 million and sold 28 properties in 27 transactions for a total of $259.9 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Jarrett Huddleston had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 45 feet and is 112 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,688 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-2/R6B which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 2 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $647,000.

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 received $2,500 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project, 320591070, for a two-unit, 5,117 square-foot R-3 building. The project was submitted by Jarrett Huddleston with plans filed June 28, 2013 and permitted September 7, 2021.

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 $2.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg has 4.3 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 2nd highest in Brooklyn. It had 4.6 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 9 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 22 commercial properties representing 159,497 square feet of the 203,924 square feet. The largest owner is Andrzej Roth, followed by Anne Dorogoff and then Catherina Lau Lai.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 5,117 square feet. It is a two-unit, 5,117 square-foot residential (R-3) building submitted by Jarrett Huddleston with plans filed June 28, 2013 and permitted April 12, 2016.

The majority, or 59 percent of the 203,924 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joel Schwartz owned at least 91 commercial properties with 1,094 residential units in New York City with 1,055,026 square feet and a city-determined market value of $179 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.2 billion in debt, with top three lenders as BridgeCity Capital, Citibank, and Deutsche Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 58 percent of the 1,055,026 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 16 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

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