New Jersey investor pays $7.2M to Candor Capital for Gowanus rental

UPDATED, 11:35 a.m., January 6, 2025: Christopher Leahy’s New Jersey-based MRM Equity through the entity Gowanus PLD LLC paid $7.2 million to Candor Capital through the entity Third Ave Holdings 489 LLC for the eight-unit property at 489 3rd Avenue in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on December 23, 2024 and was recorded on January 3, 2025. The property has 7,598 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $954 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 Candor Capital was Chaim Wurzberger. The signatory for MRM Equity was Christopher J. Leahy. The contract date was November 10, 2024. MRM Equity, led by Christopher J. Leahy, is a New Jersey investment company that owns real estate including marinas.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer MRM Equity had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Candor Capital purchased three properties in three transactions for a total of $23.5 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Chaim Wurzberger, head officer and Shea Breuer, agent. The business entities are Third Ave Holdings 489 Llc and Third Ave Holdings 489 Llc.

The property

The property with 8 residential units in Gowanus has 7,598 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has a total lot size of 7,598 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2 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

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on January 26, 2016. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the nine commercial properties representing 95,442 square feet of the 117,868 square feet. The two identified owners are Trinity Place Holdings and Thomas Cucco.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 85 percent of the 117,868 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Candor Capital owned at least 13 commercial properties with 262 residential units in New York City with 49,908 square feet and a city-determined market value of $19.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $164.9 million in debt, with top three lenders as S3 Capital, Morgan Stanley, and Valley National Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 34 percent of the 49,908 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 19 percent of the space. The bulk, or 59 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 41 percent of the space.

Correction: A prior version of this post used the incorrect building in the picture. The prior version of the post used 489 3rd Street, but the correct building is 489 3rd Avenue.

Direct link to Acris document. link