Joel Schwartz signs $72M construction loan with BridgeCity for dev site in Downtown Brooklyn

Joel Schwartz through the entity 236-242 Gold St LLC as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender BridgeCity Capital through the entity Bridgecity Hilltop LLC valued at $72 million for the multi-parcel development site including the lots 236 Gold Street, 242 Gold Street and 246 Gold Street in Downtown Brooklyn.
The deal closed on December 18, 2025 and was recorded on December 22, 2025. The prior lender was JG Funding which held debt that had an original loan amount of $17 million.
The signatory for Joel Schwartz was Joel Schwartz. The signatory for BridgeCity Capital was Louis Lebovits .

Violations and lawsuits

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

Development

On these lots, there are two active new building construction projects and major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million, totaling 16,536 square feet. The largest, B00741148, is a new building project for a 22-unit, 11,268 square-foot R-2 building submitted by Yisroel Greenfeld with plans filed May 20, 2022 and permitted May 24, 2023. The second largest, B00853769, is a new building project for a eight-unit, 5,267 square-foot R-2 building submitted by Yisroel Greenfeld and filed by Yisroel Greenfeld with plans filed April 3, 2023 and it has not been permitted yet.

The neighborhood

In Downtown Brooklyn, The bulk, or 40 percent of the 22.4 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space. In sales, Downtown Brooklyn has 1.6 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $474.2 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 14th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Downtown Brooklyn has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 14th highest in Brooklyn. It had 1.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 236 Gold Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 10 commercial properties representing 263,646 square feet of the 284,214 square feet. The largest owner is Dalan Real Estate, followed by Joel Schwartz and then Maguire Capital Group.

The majority, or 91 percent of the 284,214 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 7 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joel Schwartz owned at least 105 commercial properties with 1,685 residential units in New York City with 1,100,011 square feet and a city-determined market value of $187.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.6 billion in debt, with top three lenders as BridgeCity Capital, Citibank, and Popular Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 55 percent of the 1,100,011 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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