Moses Karpen files $17M condo plan in Bed-Stuy

Moses Karpen through the entity 590 Myrtle LLC filed to create 14 residential units and 14 commercial units in a building at 590 Myrtle Avenue in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, called the 590 Myrtle Avenue Condominium, that has a $17.2 million sellout, according to an August 31, 2022, submission to the New York State Attorney General. The principal of the sponsor, 590 Myrtle LLC, was Moses Karpen.

Moses Karpen of Waterfront Property management submitted a new building construction project for a 12-unit, 16,826-square-foot R-2 building at 590 Myrtle Avenue, on September 24, 2020. The project was permitted on November 5, 2021. It calls for the construction of an 80-foot-tall, six-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number 321598231.

The 590 Myrtle Avenue parcel has frontage of 46 feet and is 71 feet deep with a total lot size of 3,304 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 $571,000.The most recent loan totaled $10.7 million and was provided by Bank of Princeton on July 30, 2021.

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the five commercial properties representing 23,852 square feet of the 26,842 square feet. The largest owner is Solomon Feder, followed by Felicia Colon and then Moses Karpen. There are two active new building construction projects totaling 23,809 square feet. The largest is a 12-unit, 16,826-square-foot R-2 building developed by Moses Karpen with plans filed September 24, 2020 and permitted November 5, 2021. The second largest is a 10-unit, 6,983-square-foot R-2 building developed by Solomon Feder with plans filed September 20, 2012 and it has not been permitted yet.

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Moses Karpen owned at least 21 commercial properties in New York City with 186,822 square feet and a city-determined market value of $36.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $41.3 million in debt, with top three lenders as Arbor Realty Trust, Bank of Princeton, and Valley National Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 54 percent of the 186,822 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 35 percent of the space. The bulk, or 97 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 3 percent of the space.

Within a 400-foot radius of 590 Myrtle Avenue, Pincusco identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those five items, three were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were three permits with a total initial cost of $2.2 million. The most recent of these three items was the permit on December 16, 2020 for a 3,816-square-foot R-3 building with one residential units at 131 Taaffe Place. Of those five items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $11.8 million. The most recent of the two was Raphael S.F. Longobardi which borrowed $5.4 million from Patriot Bank secured by the 3,000-square-foot, four-unit mixed-use building (S3) on 616 Myrtle Avenue and one other property on December 14, 2020.