Nonprofit pays $4M for industrial in Gowanus, gets $8.1M loan

The nonprofit Voices of Community Activists and Leaders paid $4 million to Philip Castagliola through the entity 300 Douglas Realty LLC for the industrial building (E1) at 300 Douglass Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
To finance the purchase and renovation of the building, the nonprofit obtained a mostly tax-free bond proceeds of $8.1 million.
The deal closed on March 23, 2023 and was recorded on March 30, 2023. The property has 6,000 square feet of built space for a total buildable of 6,000 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $666 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 Philip Castagliola was Philip Castagliola. The signatory for Voices of Community Activists and Leaders was Jeremy Saunders.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Voices of Community Activists and Leaders had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Philip Castagliola had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The 300 Douglass Street parcel has frontage of 30 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 3,000 square feet. The zoning is M1-2 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $452,000.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $1,000 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 Gowanus, the bulk, or 47 percent of the 9.3 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Gowanus has 1.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $403.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 17th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Gowanus is the 5th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 4.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 50 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 114,431 square feet. It is a 140-unit, 114,431-square-foot R-2 building developed by Roee Wiczyk with plans filed November 22, 2021 and permitted April 27, 2022.

The majority, or 44 percent of the 164,252 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space.

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