MTA pays $25.2M to Taormina Holding for industrial in Crown Heights

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority paid $25.2 million to Taormina Holding through the entity President Maintenance Corp for the industrial building (G2) at 1590 Bedford Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on April 2, 2024 and was recorded on April 3, 2024. The property has 55,000 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $459 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 Taormina Holding was Joseph Taormina. The signatory for Metropolitan Transportation Authority was David Florio. The contract date was January 31, 2024. Joseph Taormina sellers bought the property in 1977.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Metropolitan Transportation Authority purchased four properties in three transactions for a total of $93.8 million and sold five properties in two transactions for a total of $59.4 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Taormina Holding had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The industrial building in Crown Heights has 55,000 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 202 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 20,199 square feet. The zoning is C8-2 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has 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 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 1.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $537.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 13th 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. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other industrial buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 13 commercial properties representing 118,875 square feet of the 199,962 square feet. The largest owner is Samuel Springer, followed by Pinnacle Group and then Mendel Gold.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 59 percent of the 199,962 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Metropolitan Transportation Authority owned at least seven commercial properties in New York City with 2,712,468 square feet and a city-determined market value of $870.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 100 percent of the 2,712,468 square feet of built space are office properties, with industrial properties next occupying 0 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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