Premier Equities, Cohen Equities sign $10M refi loan with Signature Bank for two properties in NoMad

Premier Equities and Cohen Equities through the entity 273 Yoco LLC (and others) as borrowers signed a refi loan with lender Signature Bank valued at $10 million for two properties including the midblock six-unit mixed-use building at 275 Fifth Avenue in NoMad, Manhattan and midblock eight-unit residential walkup building at 2 East 30th Street in NoMad, Manhattan. Premier also owns the adjacent 273 Fifth Avenue, but that was not included in this financing.
The deal closed on April 7, 2022 and was recorded on April 21, 2022. The prior lender was Signature Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $8.4 million. The two properties have 14,999 square feet of built space and 25,291 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 40,280 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $665 and the price per buildable square foot is $247 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 Premier Equities was Mark D. Mermel. The signatory for Signature Bank was Samantha Stewart.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 275 5th Avenue.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Uzi Ben Abraham, head officer and Liza Makhalkina, site manager. The business entity is Premier 273-275 Fifth Avenue. Out of the two properties, one with a total of 14,999 square feet of built space generated revenue of $359,878 per year.

The property

The 275 5th Avenue parcel has frontage of 23 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,300 square feet. The zoning is C5-2 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.9 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received $5,030 in ECB penalties and $6,380 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 NoMad, the majority, or 59 percent of the 14.3 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space. In sales, NoMad has 3.8 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 12th highest in Manhattan. For development, NoMad has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 268,290 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 275 5th Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 26 commercial properties representing 135,429 square feet of the 1,329,845 square feet. The two identified owners are Samco Properties and Florim USA. There are four active new building construction projects totaling 266,941 square feet.  The second largest is a one-unit, 37,020-square-foot R-1 building developed by Jasmin Patel with plans filed November 9, 2013 and permitted June 3, 2015.

The majority, or 73 percent of the 1.3 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database, which is incomplete, currently indicates that Premier Equities owned at least seven commercial properties with 63,209 square feet and a city-determined market value of $33.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $146.3 million in debt, with top three lenders as Acadia Realty Trust, Emerald Creek Capital, and Signature Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 38 percent of the 63,209 square feet of built space are mixed-use properties, with hotel properties next occupying 28 percent of the space. The bulk, or 62 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 38 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 275 5th Avenue, PincusCo identified 17 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those 17 items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on November 29, 2021 for a 509,193-square-foot R-2 building with four residential units at 273 5th Avenue.
Of those 17 items, three were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were three permits with a total initial cost of $12.4 million. The most recent of these three items was the permit on June 7, 2021 for a 13,984-square-foot A-3 building at 1 West 29th Street.
Of those 17 items, six were sales above $5 million totaling $1.1 billion. The most recent of the six was Florim USA which bought one condo unit in the 8,645-square-foot, 260-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 277 Fifth Avenue for $23 million from Victor Group on March 8, 2022.
Of those 17 items, seven were loans above $5 million totaling $842.4 million. The most recent of the seven was McSam Hotel Group which borrowed $203 million from Oak Hill Advisors secured by the 78,211-square-foot, 198-unit hotel (H9) on 292 5th Avenue and two other properties on January 13, 2022.

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