Joseph Safdie, Chun Lee pay $6M to Witnick for 24-unit rental in Brownsville

Joseph Safdie and Chun Lee through the entity 2342 Atlantic LLC paid $6 million to Witnick Real Estate Partners through the entity 2342 Atlantic Partners LLC for the 24-unit residential elevator building (D5) at 2342 Atlantic Avenue in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on June 17, 2022 and was recorded on June 30, 2022.The property has 16,495 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $362 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 February 15, 2017, for $5.4 million. The signatory for Witnick Real Estate Partners was Isaac Abraham. The signatory for Joseph Safdie and Chun Lee was Chun Lee.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has no record that the buyer Joseph Safdie had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Witnick Real Estate Partners purchased 12 properties in 11 transactions for a total of $96.6 million and sold four properties in three transactions for a total of $13.6 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Ramiel Benyehuda, head officer and Ramiel Ben Yehuda, site manager. The business entity is 2342 Atlantic Partners Llc.

The property

The 2342 Atlantic Avenue parcel has frontage of 40 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,000 square feet. The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.9 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, $3,155 in ECB penalties, 89 housing violations, $4,055 in OATH penalties, and one housing litigation in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Brownsville, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 40.2 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with 1-4 family buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space. In sales, Brownsville has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $62.9 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 13th 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 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 13 commercial properties representing 49,360 square feet of the 287,999 square feet. The largest owner is Witnick Real Estate Partners, followed by Loreto II LLC and then Yuriy Rubinov. There are two active new building construction projects totaling 171,315 square feet. The largest is a 136-unit, 113,727-square-foot R-2 building developed by Emmie Ryan with plans filed March 28, 2019 and permitted February 7, 2020. The second largest is a 67-unit, 57,588-square-foot R-2 building developed by Emily Kurtz with plans filed October 14, 2016 and permitted March 29, 2019.

The majority, or 56 percent of the 301,848 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 39 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Witnick Real Estate Partners owned at least 21 commercial properties with 249,435 square feet and a city-determined market value of $72.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $81.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as Dime Community Bank, Signature Bank, and Customers Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 83 percent of the 249,435 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 17 percent of the space. The bulk, or 72 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 28 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Chun Lee owned at least one commercial property with 7,000 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single walkup property. It is located in Brooklyn.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 2342 Atlantic Avenue, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those four items, three were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were two permit applications with a total initial cost of $1.2 million and one permit with a total initial cost of $673,800. The most recent of these three items was the permit on August 19, 2021 for a 7,205-square-foot R-2 building with 10 residential units at 2361 Atlantic Avenue.
One of those four items was a loan which Yehuda Cohen and Rotem Moyal borrowed $5.8 million from Cross River Bank secured by the 3,300-square-foot, six-unit rental (C2) on 1886 Eastern Parkway and three other properties on April 14, 2022.

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