Joyland Group signs contract for dev site in Gowanus, no DOB plans yet

Joyland Group through the entity 255 261 Douglas Street LLC signed a contract to pay an undisclosed amount to Anthony Borruso through the entity 255 Douglas Re LLC for the industrial building (F5) at 255 Douglass Street and the industrial building (F5) at 261 Douglass Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The expected use is ground up development. The parcels are adjacent to Charney Companies and Tavros Capital’s project at 251 Douglass Street.
The memorandum of contract was dated September 25, 2025 and was recorded on September 26, 2025. The two properties have 12,800 square feet of built space and 52,180 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 65,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.
The signatory for Anthony Borruso was Anthony Borruso. The signatory for Joyland Group was Joel Wertzberger .

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Joyland Group purchased four properties in four transactions for a total of $109.4 million and sold two properties in one transaction for a total of $10.6 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Anthony Borruso had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. Out of the two properties, one with a total of 12,800 square feet of built space generated revenue of $58,410 per year.

The property

The industrial building in Gowanus has 12,800 square feet of built space and 52,180 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 65,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 70 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,000 square feet. The zoning is M1-4/R7X which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 5 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.2 million.

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

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 Gowanus, The bulk, or 46 percent of the 9.2 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space. In sales, Gowanus has 2.3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $664.3 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 8th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Gowanus has 1.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 5th highest in Brooklyn. It had 2.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 24 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other industrial buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 255 Douglass Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the eight commercial properties representing 82,134 square feet of the 96,884 square feet. The largest owner is Yitzchok Katz, followed by Joyland Group and then Canyon Partners.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 243,661 square feet. The largest is a 261-unit, 223,886 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Tavros Capital Partners and filed by Dov Barnett with plans filed November 16, 2021 and permitted April 29, 2022. The second largest is a 19,775 square-foot storage (S-2) building submitted by Jack Elo with plans filed June 20, 2017 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 51 percent of the 96,884 square feet of built space are office buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 49 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joyland Group owned at least nine commercial properties with 604 residential units in New York City with 151,697 square feet and a city-determined market value of $7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $227.9 million in debt, with top three lenders as Citibank, iCross Capital, and Cross River Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 44 percent of the 151,697 square feet of built space are D6 properties, with O3 properties next occupying 43 percent of the space. The bulk, or 57 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Bronx next at 43 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link