Portabella owner pays $20.1M to Roberts Equities for mixed-use in Fordham Heights

Portabella owner Khaled Ashmawy, through the entity 58-66 East Fordham Owner LLC, paid $20.1 million to Midtown-based Roberts Equities through its 58-66 East Fordham LLC for the mixed-use building (K2) at 58-66 East Fordham in Fordham Heights, Bronx.

The deal closed on January 11, 2023 and was recorded on January 25, 2023. The property has 17,712 square feet of built space and 10,764 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 28,483 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,134 and the price per buildable square foot is $705 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 acquisition was financed with a $12 million loan from Pacific National Bank.

The signatory for the seller was an attorney, Steven J. Goldstein. The signatory for Khaled Ashmawy was Khaled Ashmawy, also known as Karl Ashmawy, who is the president of Portabella.
A portion of the building has been occupied by a Lucille Roberts health club. Lucille Roberts is the late wife of Bob Roberts, the chairman of Roberts Equities.

Prior sales and revenue

The 17,712-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.7 million or $98 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 69 feet and is 120 feet deep with a total lot size of 8,280 square feet. The zoning is C4-4 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 3.44 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $7.7 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 received $1,150 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 Fordham Heights, The bulk, or 46 percent of the 16.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 35 percent of the space. In sales, Fordham Heights has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $116.2 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Fordham Heights has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 730,759 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 13 commercial properties representing 129,264 square feet of the 389,159 square feet. The largest owner is Agron Osmani, followed by Ryan Zar and then Sol Zalman.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 22,951 square feet. It is a 35-unit, 22,951 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by JD Lin with plans filed March 10, 2020 and permitted March 10, 2021.

The majority, or 83 percent of the 389,159 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 9 percent of the space.

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