Niantic Partners signs $15.6M refi with S. Klein Family in LES, Maverick had file to foreclose

Niantic Partners through the entity 157 Suffolk Street JV LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender S. Klein Family Partnership through the entity Samkle North Miami Properties, Inc. valued at $15.6 million for the midblock 35-unit residential walkup building at 157 Suffolk Street in Lower East Side, Manhattan.

The owners were facing foreclosure after Maverick Real Estate Partners bought the debt in May 2021, and then in December 2021 filed to foreclose on the loan, as PincusCo previously reported on both actions.

The deal closed on March 16, 2022 and was recorded on March 31, 2022. The prior lender was Maverick Real Estate Partners which held debt that had an original loan amount of $14.7 million.

The property has 22,398 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $696 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 owner bought the property on December 18, 2012, for $18 million. The signatory for Niantic Partners was Thomas Brodie. The signatory for S. Klein Family Partnership was Alex Kurkin. Thomas Brodie is a founding partner at Niantic Partners.  The S. Klein Family Partnership is the 100% owner of Samkle Investments, which is an affiliate by address and by signatory, Alex Kurkin.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Thomas Brodie, head officer and Harvey Schulweis, officer. The business entities are Ra Cohen & Associates, Inc and 157 Suffolk Street Jv Llc.

The property

The 157 Suffolk Street parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,000 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 $8.7 million.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, $1,250 in ECB penalties, six housing violations, and $1,550 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Lower East Side, the majority, or 60 percent of the 33.2 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Lower East Side has 2.5 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $677.8 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 18th highest in Manhattan. For development, Lower East Side has 2.4 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 9th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 18 commercial properties representing 269,932 square feet of the 369,485 square feet. The largest owner is SMA Equities, followed by NYC Department of Education and then Thomas Brodie. There is one active new building construction project totaling 69,545 square feet. It is a 88-unit, 69,545-square-foot R-2 building developed by Samy Mahfar with plans filed August 10, 2015 and permitted January 9, 2018.

The majority, or 33 percent of the 412,683 square feet of built space are residential walkup buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 157 Suffolk Street, PincusCo identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those five items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on December 23, 2021 for a 178,700-square-foot R-2 building with 67 residential units at 250 East Houston Street.
Of those five items, four were loans above $5 million totaling $78.8 million. The most recent of the four was Simon Fouladian which borrowed $12 million from New York Community Bank secured by the 15,793-square-foot, 19-unit rental (D7) on 164 Stanton Street on March 30, 2022.

Direct link to Acris document. link