Oscar Puerta pays $4.5M for two walkups in Fordham Manor in foreclosure

Oscar Puerta through the entity Morris 2025 Holdings LLC paid $4.5 million through a judicial foreclosure for the 28-unit residential walkups (C1) at 2705 and 2707 Morris Avenue in Fordham Manor, Bronx. The former owner was Douglas Peterson’s City Skyline Realty through the entity 2705 & 2707 Morris LLC, which lost the property in this foreclosure. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on April 1, 2025 and was recorded on April 10, 2025. The two properties have 49,000 square feet of built space and 29,250 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 78,260 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $91 and the price per buildable square foot is $57 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 the court in place of the former owner City Skyline Realty was Ian Lagowitz. The signatory for Oscar Puerta was Oscar Puerta. The contract date was February 27, 2025.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Oscar Puerta had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller City Skyline Realty had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Doug Peterson, head officer and Neyl Garcia, site manager. The business entity is 2705 & 2707 Morris Llc. Out of the two properties, one with a total of 49,000 square feet of built space generated revenue of $431,935 per year.

The property

The residential walkup buildings with 56 residential units in Fordham Manor has 49,000 square feet of built space and 29,250 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 78,260 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.  The zoning is R8 which allows for up to 6.02 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The properties were involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $72.3 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan filed on October 27, 2023, by Fannie Mae against Peterson Capital and City Skyline Realty. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received 63 housing violations and $6,860 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 block

On the tax block of 2707 Morris Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 12 commercial properties representing 344,458 square feet of the 438,818 square feet. The largest owner is Shaban Mehaj, followed by Prana Investments and then Franco Sukaj.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 94,917 square feet. It is a 94,917 square-foot educational (E) building submitted by KIPP NYC and filed by Ahkilah Johnson with plans filed January 8, 2021 and permitted December 16, 2021.

The majority, or 64 percent of the 438,818 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that City Skyline Realty owned at least 46 commercial properties with 1,310 residential units in New York City with 1,126,738 square feet and a city-determined market value of $94 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $68 million in debt, with top three lenders as Arbor Realty Trust, Signature Bank, and New York Community Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 71 percent of the 1,126,738 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 29 percent of the space. The bulk, or 62 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Bronx next at 38 percent of the space.

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