Joel Wertzberger signs $33M refi for commercial building in Brownsville

Joel Wertzberger of Joyland Group through the entity 635 Rockaway LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Valley National Bank valued at $33 million for the commercial condominium unit the represents nearly the entire building at 589 Rockaway Avenue, also known as 635 Rockaway Avenue in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The property is the location of ACI Inpatient Detox & Rehab Services. The commercial condo encompasses the entire building other than parking space, which is part of the parking condo unit, which is not covered by this loan.
The deal closed on July 25, 2025 and was recorded on August 5, 2025. The prior lender was Dime Community Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $24 million. The property has 68,539 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $481 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 Wertzberger was Joel Wertzberger. The signatory for Valley National Bank was Justin McBride .

The property

The office condo in Brownsville has 68,539 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has a total lot size of 68,539 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $6.6 million. The most recent loan totaled $24 million and was provided by Dime Community Bank on November 2, 2020.

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.

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 Brownsville, The bulk, or 46 percent of the 28.6 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, Brownsville has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $154.9 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Brownsville has 1.4 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 7th highest in Brooklyn. It had 2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other office buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owner of the one commercial property that spans that spans 553,197 square feet on the block.The identified owner is New York City Housing Authority.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

All properties are elevator.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joel Wertzberger owned at least 26 commercial properties with 380 residential units in New York City with 385,583 square feet and a city-determined market value of $63.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $163.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as Citibank, Dime Community Bank, and Webster Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 66 percent of the 385,583 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 22 percent of the space. The bulk, or 75 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Bronx next at 25 percent of the space.

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