Joel Schwartz signs $18.9M loan with BridgeCity for development in Williamsburg

Joel Schwartz through the entity 102 Frost LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender BridgeCity Capital through the entity BridgeCity Hilltop LLC valued at $18.9 million for the development building (V1) at 98-100 Frost Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on May 3, 2023 and was recorded on May 8, 2023. The prior lender was Popular Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $12.8 million.
The owner bought the property on June 21, 2021, for $4.8 million. The signatory for Joel Schwartz was Joel Schwartz. The signatory for BridgeCity Capital was Louis Lebovits.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 57 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 6,732 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 $196,000. The most recent loan totaled $12.8 million and was provided by Popular Bank on September 23, 2022.

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 $14,900 in ECB penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

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 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg is the 8th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 4.2 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 nine of the 17 commercial properties representing 27,350 square feet of the 67,991 square feet. The largest owner is Joel Schwartz, followed by Issac Fried and then David Halberstam.
On the tax block, there were five new building construction projects totaling 50,632 square feet. The largest is a 27-unit, 18,179 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Mordechai Ganzfried with plans filed September 30, 2020 and permitted November 12, 2021. The second largest is a 20-unit, 13,499 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Yisroel Greenfeld and filed by Yisroel Greenfeld with plans filed May 25, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 59 percent of the 67,991 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joel Schwartz owned at least 74 commercial properties with 927 residential units in New York City with 985,796 square feet and a city-determined market value of $169.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $784.8 million in debt, with top three lenders as Citibank, BridgeCity Capital, and Starwood Capital Group respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 57 percent of the 985,796 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 17 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

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