Lender acquires Union Hotel in Gowanus through $8M foreclosure transfer

The securitized lender entity, DBJPM 2017-C6 611 Degraw LLC acquired the Union Hotel at 611 Degraw Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn, through a foreclosure auction resulting in a transfer value of $8 million. The former owner was Alec Shtromandel.

The deal closed on November 22, 2023 and was recorded on December 14, 2023. The property has 12,625 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $633 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 May 23, 2008, for $1.4 million. The signatory for the court was Jeffrey Schwartz. The signatory for Dbjpm 2017-C6 611 Degraw LLC was Matthew Furay. The contract date was September 28, 2023. In this transaction the lender is taking back the property through a foreclosure auction 520542/2022. The former owner director was Alec Shtromandel. Alec Shtromandel borrowed $7 million from Deutsche Bank in 2017. Matthew Furay is with K-Star Asset Management.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Alec Shtromandel had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Alec Shtromandel, individual owner and Alec Stromandel, agent.

The property

The hotel building in Gowanus has 12,625 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,016 square feet. The zoning is M1-4 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.1 million. The most recent loan totaled 0.0 and was provided by Dbjpm 2017-C6 611 Degraw LLC on September 25, 2023.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $7 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan filed on March 23, 2022, by DBJPM 2017-C6 and Midland Loan Services against Alec Shtromandel. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $5,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on August 30, 2012. 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 2.1 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $734.6 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 7th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Gowanus has 2.3 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 7th highest in Brooklyn. It had 2.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 25 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 17 commercial properties representing 45,700 square feet of the 164,252 square feet. The two identified owners are Voices Of Community Activists And Leaders and Jack Elo.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 114,431 square feet. It is a 140-unit, 114,431 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Roee Wiczyk with plans filed November 22, 2021 and permitted April 27, 2022.

The majority, or 44 percent of the 164,252 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space.

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