Joseph Rubin, Shmuel Haikins pay $17M to Mendel Kaff for dev site in Crown Heights

Joseph Rubin and Shmuel A. Haikins through the entity Bd781 LLC paid $17 million to Mendel Kaff through the entity Sj Washington LLC for property at 478 Saint Johns Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and property at 419 Lincoln Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. In March 2022, Ahron Gluck filed new building plans for two buildings with a total of 64 residential units.
The deal closed on May 17, 2022 and was recorded on June 6, 2022.
The signatory for Mendel Kaff was Mendel Kaff. The signatory for Joseph Rubin and Shmuel A. Haikins was Joseph Rubin.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 478 Saint Johns Place.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has no record that the buyer Joseph Rubin had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Mendel Kaff purchased four properties in four transactions for a total of $39.7 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties since September of 2020. 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 40,749 square feet. The largest is a new building project for a 34-unit, 25,309-square-foot R-2 building developed by Ahron Gluck with plans filed March 29, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a new building project for a 30-unit, 15,440-square-foot R-2 building developed by Ahron Gluck with plans filed May 11, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The block

On the tax block of 478 Saint Johns Place, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 24 commercial properties representing 208,762 square feet of the 270,949 square feet. The largest owner is Mendel Kaff, followed by Isaac Stern and then MHANY Management. There are two active new building construction projects totaling 40,749 square feet. The largest is a 34-unit, 25,309-square-foot R-2 building developed by Ahron Gluck with plans filed March 29, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.The second largest is a 30-unit, 15,440-square-foot R-2 building developed by Ahron Gluck with plans filed May 11, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 63 percent of the 279,030 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Mendel Kaff owned at least four commercial properties with 193,125 square feet and a city-determined market value of $11.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $62.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as Bank of Princeton, Sterling National Bank, and Esquire Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 75 percent of the 193,125 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 25 percent of the space. The bulk, or 75 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Brooklyn next at 25 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 478 Saint Johns Place, PincusCo identified eight commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those eight items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on May 11, 2022 for a 15,444-square-foot R-2 building with 30 residential units at 421 Lincoln Place.
One of those eight items was a sale which Mendel Kaff bought the 47,925-square-foot, 63-unit rental (D5) on 781 Washington Avenue for $22 million from Douglas Rosenberg on June 8, 2021.
Of those eight items, six were loans above $5 million totaling $54.9 million. The most recent of the six was Kupferman family which borrowed $10.2 million from Cross River Bank secured by the 9,938-square-foot, nine-unit rental (C1) on 429 Lincoln Place and two other properties on May 9, 2022.

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