Renaissance Realty Group plans 76-unit project in Crown Heights

Marc Chemtob, executive of Renaissance Realty Group submitted a new building construction project for a 76-unit, 52,737 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 291 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on May 19, 2023 under job number B00863621. It calls for the construction of an eight-story building. The project is described in the filing as: new eight-stories with cellar and sub-cellar, mixed-use, including residential and community facility, with accessory off-street parking for 40 cars and 38 bicycles. The architect is ND Architecture & Design PC.
The parcel is adjacent to the below-grade train right-of-way.

The property

The existing walkup building with 33 residential units in Crown Heights has 28,724 square feet of built space and 18,952 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 47,680 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has two buildings with frontage of 80 feet and is 131 feet deep with a total lot size of 11,920 square feet. The lot is irregular. 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 $4.2 million. The most recent loan totaled $5.5 million and was provided by Signature Bank on October 10, 2022.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold for $1.5 million on October 28, 2004.

The 28,724-square-foot property generated revenue of $832,311 or $29 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received 22 housing violations and two housing litigations in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Crown Heights, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 46.5 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 36 percent of the space. In sales, Crown Heights has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $582.3 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 11th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Crown Heights has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 6th highest in Brooklyn. It had 3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the nine commercial properties representing 229,184 square feet of the 248,048 square feet. The largest owner is Creative Housing, followed by Elcorno Martin and then Jay Gold. On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 58,407 square feet. The largest is a 76-unit, 52,737 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Renaissance Realty Group and filed by Marc Chemtob with plans filed May 19, 2023 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a five-unit, 5,670 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Omar Slowe with plans filed December 22, 2020 and permitted December 28, 2022.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Renaissance Realty Group owned at least 66 commercial properties with 948 residential units in New York City with 1,112,121 square feet and a city-determined market value of $166.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $95.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as Greystone & Co., Kearny Bank, and Webster Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 51 percent of the 1,112,121 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 27 percent of the space. The bulk, or 69 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 21 percent of the space.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 285 Eastern Parkway, PincusCo identified two commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those two items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $14.6 million. The most recent of the two was Renaissance Realty Group in which borrowed $7.4 million from Kearny Bank secured by the 26,776-square-foot, 24-unit rental (D8) on 527 Lincoln Place on October 21, 2022.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.