Joel Weiss pays $8.5M to White Castle for 99-unit dev site in Cypress Hills

Joel Weiss through the entity Shepherd & Highland Holdings LLC paid $8.5 million to the fast food restaurant White Castle Management through the entity White Castle System Inc. for the 99-unit development site at 229 Shepherd Avenue that is currently a retail building (K5) with the address 3101 Atlantic Avenue in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. The expected use is ground up development. The existing tax lot, 49, is expected to be divided into two tax lots, one will remain tax lot 49 on the western portion of the existing parcel, and the other will be tax lot 48, which will be to the east.

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project, B01225983, for a 99-unit, 64,014 square-foot residential (R-2) building. The project was submitted by Empire Management & Construction and filed by Joel Weiss with plans filed May 23, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet.
The deal closed on December 31, 2025 and was recorded on January 6, 2026. The property has 4,332 square feet of built space and 119,993 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 124,331 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,962 and the price per buildable square foot is $68 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 seller bought the property on August 16, 2010, for $1.4 million. The signatory for White Castle Management was Samuel S. Bosson . The signatory for Joel Weiss was Joel Weiss. The contract date was October 20, 2024.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Joel Weiss purchased six properties in four transactions for a total of $8.9 million and sold two properties in two transactions for a total of $3.8 million over the past 24 months.
The seller White Castle Management had not purchased any other properties and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $3.7 million over the same time period. The 4,332-square-foot property generated revenue of $242,332 or $56 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The retail building in Cypress Hills has 4,332 square feet of built space and 119,993 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 124,331 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 207 feet and is 105 feet deep with a total lot size of 20,653 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R8A which allows for up to 6.02 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $973,000.

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 not received any significant violations in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Cypress Hills, The bulk, or 24 percent of the 8.6 million square feet of commercial built space are mixed-use buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space. In sales, Cypress Hills has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $102.2 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Cypress Hills has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 15th 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 15 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 10 commercial properties representing 7,521 square feet of the 45,114 square feet. The two identified owners are Ramos Lucino and Nazrul Islam.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 128,980 square feet. The largest is a 99-unit, 64,965 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Joel Weiss and filed by Joel Weiss with plans filed June 19, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 99-unit, 64,014 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Empire Management & Construction and filed by Joel Weiss with plans filed May 23, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 42 percent of the 45,114 square feet of built space are mixed-use buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joel Weiss owned at least 10 commercial properties with 62 residential units in New York City with 67,242 square feet and a city-determined market value of $10.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $30.8 million in debt, with top three lenders as Parke Bank, Popular Bank, and Ridgewood Savings Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 55 percent of the 67,242 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 30 percent of the space. The bulk, or 68 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Brooklyn next at 32 percent of the space.

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