Joel Schwartz signs $18.5M refi loan with BridgeCity Capital for 23-unit development in Greenpoint

Joel Schwartz through the entity 494 Manhattan LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender BridgeCity Capital through the entity Bcc Funding Ii LLC valued at $18.5 million for the development building (V1) at 494 Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

On these lots, there is one active new building construction project for a 23-unit, 15,800-square-foot R-2 building. The project was developed by Yisroel Greenfeld with plans filed February 5, 2020 and permitted November 10, 2021.
The refinance loan closed on August 31, 2022 and was recorded on September 1, 2022. The prior lender was BridgeCity Capital which held debt that had an original loan amount of $11 million.
The owner bought the property on January 29, 2020, for $6.2 million. The signatory for Joel Schwartz was Joel Schwartz. The signatory for BridgeCity Capital was Louis Lebovits.

The property

The 494 Manhattan Avenue parcel has frontage of 176 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,183 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-2/R6 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 2.43 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $359,000.The most recent loan totaled $6.6 million and was provided by BridgeCity Capital on July 9, 2021.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $31,150 in ECB penalties and $31,150 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Greenpoint, the bulk, or 29 percent of the 23.4 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space. In sales, Greenpoint has 2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $665.3 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 7th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Greenpoint has 3.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 4th highest in Brooklyn. It had 3.9 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 17 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the six commercial properties. The identified owner is Joel Schwartz.
There is one active new building construction project totaling 15,800 square feet. It is a 23-unit, 15,800-square-foot R-2 building developed by Yisroel Greenfeld with plans filed February 5, 2020 and permitted November 10, 2021.

The majority, or 0 percent of the 0.0 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with development buildings next occupying 0 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joel Schwartz owned at least 90 commercial properties in New York City with 966,865 square feet and a city-determined market value of $154.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $767.7 million in debt, with top three lenders as Citibank, BridgeCity Capital, and Starwood Capital Group respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 49 percent of the 966,865 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 25 percent of the space. The bulk, or 98 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 2 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link