Joyland pays $30M to Madison Realty for dev site in Williamsburg, signs lease with Watermark Capital

Joyland Management through the entity Broadway Corner Bedford LLC paid $30 million to Madison Realty Capital through the entity 159 Broadway Owner LLC for the development site with a 256-unit hotel building (H9) planned at 159 Broadway in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The expected use is ground up development.

On the lot, there is a new building project, B01327363, for a 99-unit, 97,166 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Borough Developers and filed by Mendel Berkowitz with plans filed December 11, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet.

Simultaneously with the $30 million purchase, Joyland Management as landlord and Watermark Capital Group as tenant, signed a 99-year ground lease for the property valued at $3.1 million.
The deals closed on January 21, 2026 and were recorded on January 28, 2026.
The signatory for Madison Realty Capital was David Speiser . The signatory for Joyland Management was Joel Wertzberger . The contract date was March 21, 2025.
For the ground lease, the signatory for Joyland Management was Joel Wertzberger . The signatory for Watermark Capital Group was Meir D. Tabak .

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Joyland Management had purchased any other properties and sold four properties in one transaction for a total of $105 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Madison Realty Capital purchased seven properties in five transactions for a total of $204.6 million and sold 15 properties in 14 transactions for a total of $277.8 million over the same time period.

The property

The hotel building with 256 residential units in Williamsburg has 112,041 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 108 feet and is 87 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,262 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-3 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 2.43 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.1 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 received $1,000 in ECB penalties and $1,000 in OATH penalties 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 189,899 square feet. The largest, B01327363, is a new building project for a 99-unit, 97,166 square-foot R-2 building submitted by Borough Developers and filed by Mendel Berkowitz with plans filed December 11, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest, 320911233, is a new building project for a 256-unit, 92,733 square-foot R-1 building submitted by Cornell Realty Management and filed by Isaac Hager with plans filed February 21, 2018 and permitted January 14, 2020.

The neighborhood

In Williamsburg, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 50.4 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Williamsburg has the 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.9 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg is the 2nd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 42.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 83 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 159 Broadway, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the nine commercial properties representing 123,641 square feet of the 153,358 square feet. The two identified owners are Madison Realty Capital and Firebird Grove.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 189,899 square feet. The largest is a 99-unit, 97,166 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Borough Developers and filed by Mendel Berkowitz with plans filed December 11, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 256-unit, 92,733 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Cornell Realty Management and filed by Isaac Hager with plans filed February 21, 2018 and permitted January 14, 2020.

The majority, or 73 percent of the 153,358 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Madison Realty Capital owned at least 59 commercial properties with 2,653 residential units in New York City with 2,615,652 square feet and a city-determined market value of $357.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.7 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Signature Bank, MF1 Capital, and TPG Angelo Gordon respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 75 percent of the 2,615,652 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 12 percent of the space. The bulk, or 41 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Manhattan next at 30 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joyland Management owned at least one commercial property with one residential unit in New York City with 37,372 square feet and a city-determined market value of $7.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $13.8 million in debt, borrowed from Dime Community Bank. The portfolio consists of at least a single office property. It is located in Manhattan.

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