Magen David Yeshivah pays $13.8M for Gravesend development site for new high school

Magen David Yeshivah paid $13.8 million to Matthew Percia for three properties in two transactions in Gravesend where it plans to build a new high school. The properties are 1905, 1911 and 1915 McDonald Avenue.

The Magen David Yeshivah plans to build a new high school on this parcel, according to a source familiar with the plans. The high school is currently located at 7801 Bay Parkway.

The school filed plans to demolish the existing buildings on the three tax parcels that have a total frontage of 128 feet along Quentin Road and 206 feet along McDonald Avenue yielding an approximately 26,368-square-foot development lot.
The buyer entity provided an address which is the same as the business address of real estate investor Jeff Sutton, who is a trustee of the Magen David Yeshivah.

The school runs from pre-school through 12th grade and was founded in the 1946. The school currently operates in three locations, the high school at 7801 Bay Parkway, an elementary school at 2130 McDonald Avenue and an early childhood center at 2170 McDonald Avenue

In the first transaction, Magen David Yeshivah through the entity MDY Quentin LLC paid $11.5 million to Matthew Percia through the entity 1889-1905 Mcdonald Avenue Associates, LLC for the industrial building (E9) at 1905 Mcdonald Avenue in Gravesend, Brooklyn and industrial building (E1) at 1911 Mcdonald Avenue in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on June 26, 2023 and was recorded on June 27, 2023. The two properties have 19,134 square feet of built space and 59,273 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 78,432 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $601 and the price per buildable square foot is $146 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.)

In the second, Magen David Yeshivah through the entity MDY Quentin LLC paid $2.3 million to Matthew Percia through the entity 1915 Mcdonald Avenue Associates LLC for the two-unit mixed-use building (S2) at 1915 Mcdonald Avenue in Gravesend, Brooklyn. The property has 2,892 square feet of built space and 4,976 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 7,873 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $800 and the price per buildable square foot is $294 per the PincusCo analysis.
The signatory for Matthew Percia was Matthew Percia. The signatory for Magen David Yeshivah was Morris Missry.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 1905 Mcdonald Avenue.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Magen David Yeshivah had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Matthew Percia had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The two properties with a total of 19,134 square feet of built space generated revenue of $309,683 per year or $16 per square foot. The sale price per square foot was $601.

The property

The industrial building in Gravesend has 19,134 square feet of built space and 59,273 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 78,432 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 104 feet and is 126 feet deep with a total lot size of 13,284 square feet. 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 $1.3 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 Gravesend, The bulk, or 40 percent of the 19.1 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space. In sales, Gravesend has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $393.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 19th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Gravesend has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 648,771 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. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other industrial buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 1905 McDonald Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 23 commercial properties representing 20,274 square feet of the 142,743 square feet. The two identified owners are SBH Community Service Network and Jeff Sutton.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 16,518 square feet. The largest is a 10,717 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Simon Leviov with plans filed December 17, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a one-unit, 5,801 square-foot residential (R-3) building submitted by Alferd Esses with plans filed November 16, 2018 and permitted March 17, 2020.

The majority, or 39 percent of the 142,743 square feet of built space are mixed-use buildings, with office buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space.

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