Poly Prep school pays $13.5M to Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture for school building in Park Slope

Poly Prep Country Day School through the entity Poly Prep Country Day School paid $13.5 million to Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture for the school building (W3) at 53 Prospect Park West in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on November 21, 2023 and was recorded on January 17, 2024. The property has 5,724 square feet of built space and 33,464 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 39,140 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $2,358 and the price per buildable square foot is $344 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 Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture was Thomas Castelnuovo. The signatory for Poly Prep Country Day School was Thomas Iannelli. The contract date was February 14, 2023. Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture has owned the property since 1948.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Poly Prep Country Day School had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The specialty building in Park Slope has 5,724 square feet of built space and 33,464 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 39,140 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 97 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,785 square feet. The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Park Slope Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.4 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

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 Park Slope, The bulk, or 36 percent of the 9.8 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 26 percent of the space. In sales, Park Slope has 2.6 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $814.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 4th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Park Slope has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 489,574 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the seven commercial properties representing 10,444 square feet of the 68,019 square feet. The identified owner is Ferdinand Giancola.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 68 percent of the 68,019 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space.

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