Orin Portnoy pays $2.6M for commercial in East Williamsburg

Orin Portnoy paid $2.6 million for two adjacent commercial properties, 18 Grattan Street and 20 Grattan Street, in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in two transactions. One of the properties, 18 Grattan Street, is home to Sey Coffee, which Food & Wine dubbed the best coffee shop in the United States in 2019.
In the first, Orin Portnoy through the entity Grattan Bogart 18 LLC paid $1.3 million to Francesca Montagna through the entity 18 Grattan Street LLC for the industrial building (E1) at 18 Grattan Street in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on November 21, 2024 and was recorded on December 2, 2024. The property has 2,500 square feet of built space and 2,500 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 5,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $520 and the price per buildable square foot is $260 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 Francesca Montagna was Francesca Montagna. The signatory for Orin Portnoy was Orin Portnoy. The contract date was October 24, 2024.

In the second, Orin Portnoy through the entity Grattan Bogart 20 LLC paid $1.3 million to Francesca Montagna through the entity 20 Grattan Street LLC for the mixed-use building (K2) at 20 Grattan Street in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on November 21, 2024 and was recorded on December 2, 2024. The property has 4,375 square feet of built space and 625 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 5,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $297 and the price per buildable square foot is $260 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 Francesca Montagna was Francesca Montagna. The signatory for Orin Portnoy was Orin Portnoy. The contract date was October 24, 2024.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Orin Portnoy had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Francesca Montagna had not purchased any other properties and sold five properties in two transactions for a total of $4.5 million over the same time period.

The property

The industrial building in East Williamsburg has 2,500 square feet of built space and 2,500 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 5,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,500 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 $293,000.

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 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 $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In East Williamsburg, The majority, or 62 percent of the 17.1 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 11 percent of the space. In sales, East Williamsburg has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $290.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 21st highest in Brooklyn. For development, East Williamsburg has 1.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 9th highest in Brooklyn. It had 1.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 10 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 six of the 22 commercial properties representing 22,875 square feet of the 88,100 square feet. The largest owner is Maria Garcia As Trustee, followed by Ronald Cohen and then Randy Polumbo.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 40 percent of the 88,100 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Orin Portnoy owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 8,304 square feet and a city-determined market value of $770,000. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single industrial property. It is located in Brooklyn.

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