Rabsky Group affiliate pays $5M to Abraham Brach for dev site in Williamsburg

Rafael Rabinowitz of Galaxy Developers and affiliated with Isaac Rabinowitz’s Rabsky Group, through the entity 66 Gerry LLC paid $5 million to Abraham Brach through the entity 58 Gerry St LLC for the development site (V1) at 66 Gerry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on January 3, 2023 and was recorded on January 11, 2023. The property has zero square feet of built space and 40,000 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 40,000 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $125 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 Abraham Brach was Abraham Brach. The signatory for 66 Gerry LLC was Rafael Rabinowitz.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has records that the Rafael Rabinowitz purchased one other property for $5 million and has no record he sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Abraham Brach had not purchased any other properties and sold three properties in two transactions for a total of $15.5 million over the same time period.

The property

The 66 Gerry Street parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 10,000 square feet. The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.1 million.The most recent loan totaled $20 million and was provided by BridgeCity Capital on February 17, 2021.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. 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 $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Williamsburg, the bulk, or 39 percent of the 49.7 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Williamsburg has the 7th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg is the 10th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 4.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 9 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other development buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 31 commercial properties representing 23,460 square feet of the 90,057 square feet. The largest owner is Cheskel Brach, followed by Sarah Gelb and then Abraham Brach.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 126,301 square feet. It is a 140-unit, 126,301-square-foot R-2 building developed by the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Rona Reodica with plans filed September 9, 2021 and permitted June 22, 2022.

The majority, or 59 percent of the 76,597 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 26 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Abraham Brach owned at least seven commercial properties in New York City with 225,038 square feet and a city-determined market value of $18.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $120.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as G4 Capital Partners, BridgeCity Capital, and Blue Foundry Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 86 percent of the 225,038 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 14 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

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