Joel Schwartz signs $19.8M refi with Parke Bank for hotel in East Williamsburg

Joel Schwartz through the entity 360 Johnson, LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Parke Bank valued at $19.8 million for the hotel building (H3) at 360 Johnson Avenue in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on February 27, 2025 and was recorded on March 6, 2025. The prior lender was Yakar Partners which held debt that had an original loan amount of $18.5 million.The property has 24,624 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $804 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 Joel Schwartz was Joel Schwartz. The signatory for Parke Bank was Renee L. D’Orazio .

Prior sales and revenue

The 24,624-square-foot property generated revenue of $2.7 million or $109 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The hotel building in East Williamsburg has 24,624 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 75 feet and is 96 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,470 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-2 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $6.6 million. The most recent loan totaled $18.5 million and was provided by Yakar Partners on August 30, 2024.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $18.8 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan filed on November 3, 2023, by Avana Capital against Joel Schwartz. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on April 10, 2020. 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 East Williamsburg, The majority, or 62 percent of the 17.1 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 11 percent of the space. In sales, East Williamsburg has 1.3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $354.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 20th highest in Brooklyn. For development, East Williamsburg has 1.9 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 7th highest in Brooklyn. It had 2.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 12 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the three commercial properties representing 24,624 square feet of the 70,251 square feet. The identified owner is Joel Schwartz.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 65 percent of the 70,251 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 35 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joel Schwartz owned at least 104 commercial properties with 1,440 residential units in New York City with 1,014,094 square feet and a city-determined market value of $179.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.3 billion in debt, with top three lenders as BridgeCity Capital, Citibank, and S3 Capital respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 52 percent of the 1,014,094 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 17 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

Direct link to Acris document. link