Loketch Group pays $6M to church for dev site with 19 units planned in Crown Heights

The Loketch Group through the entity 817 Classon Owner LLC paid $6 million to Solid Rock Pentecostal Church through the entity Solid Rock Pentecostal Church, Inc. for the 19 unit development site at 817 Classon Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 19-unit, 19,928 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Loketch Group and filed by Moishe Loketch with plans filed January 26, 2024 and it has not been permitted yet.

The sale closed on April 2, 2024 and was recorded on April 5, 2024. The property has 3,841 square feet of built space and 16,362 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 20,200 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,562 and the price per buildable square foot is $297 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 signatory for Solid Rock Pentecostal Church was DuWayne C. Pass. The signatory for Loketch Group was Allan Lebovits. The contract date was July 24, 2018.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Loketch Group purchased three properties in two transactions for a total of $10.8 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Solid Rock Pentecostal Church had not purchased or sold any other properties.

The property

The specialty building in Crown Heights has 3,841 square feet of built space and 16,362 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 20,200 square feet 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 5,050 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $511,000.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one court case and no bankruptcies over the past two years. The court filing was a $6.4 million judgment concerning a leave to sell filed on August 24, 2023, by Solid Rock Pentecostal Fellowship Church, with the buyer an entity registered with Jeffrey Zwick & Associates. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Crown Heights, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 46.5 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 36 percent of the space. In sales, Crown Heights has 2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $566.8 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 12th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Crown Heights has 2.1 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 6th highest in Brooklyn. It had 2.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 22 of the 33 commercial properties representing 439,983 square feet of the 515,509 square feet. The largest owner is Zalmen Wagschal, followed by Workforce Housing Group and then Watermark Capital Group.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 19,928 square feet. It is a 19-unit, 19,928 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Loketch Group and filed by Moishe Loketch with plans filed January 26, 2024 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 51 percent of the 515,509 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 41 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Loketch Group owned at least 18 commercial properties with 219 residential units in New York City with 300,803 square feet and a city-determined market value of $52.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $157.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as Societe Generale, Maxim Capital Group, and BridgeCity Capital respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 68 percent of the 300,803 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with office properties next occupying 17 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

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