Rockrose pays $3.8M to add small parcel to large Fort Greene dev site

Rockrose Development through the entity 100 DK L.L.C. paid $3.8 million to Stephen Sun and Thomas Sun through the entity 100 Dekalb LLC for the three-unit mixed-use building (S3) at 100 Dekalb Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, which is adjacent to Rockrose Development’s 609-unit construction project.
The deal closed on January 31, 2023 and was recorded on February 10, 2023. The property has 4,046 square feet of built space and 9,954 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 14,000 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $939 and the price per buildable square foot is $271 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 Stephen Sun and Thomas Sun was Stephen Sun and Thomas Sun. The signatory for Rockrose Development was Patricia Dunphy.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Rockrose Development purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $148.2 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Stephen Sun had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owner according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is Stephen Sun, head officer. The business entity is 100 Dekalb Llc.

The property

The 100 Dekalb Avenue parcel has frontage of 20 feet and is 72 feet deep with a total lot size of 1,400 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C6-4 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 $1.9 million.

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.

The neighborhood

In Fort Greene, the bulk, or 28 percent of the 11.5 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Fort Greene has 1.6 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $561.1 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 10th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Fort Greene has 2.3 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 8th highest in Brooklyn. It had 2.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 20 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were two pre-foreclosure suit filed among other mixed-use buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 14 commercial properties representing 147,485 square feet of the 292,449 square feet. The largest owner is Rockrose Development, followed by Victor Reyes and then the City of New York.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 518,744 square feet. The largest is a 609-unit, 418,092-square-foot R-2 building developed by Justin Elghanayan with plans filed April 20, 2020 and permitted August 11, 2022. The second largest is a 147-unit, 100,652-square-foot R-2 building developed by Chesky Rosen with plans filed February 2, 2022 and permitted May 20, 2022.

The majority, or 57 percent of the 286,501 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Stephen Sun owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 6,500 square feet and a city-determined market value of $825,000. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single walkup property. It is located in Brooklyn.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Rockrose Development owned at least 22 commercial properties in New York City with 5,977,361 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.3 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.5 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Wells Fargo, MetLife, and Deutsche Pfandbriefbank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 75 percent of the 5,977,361 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with D4 properties next occupying 15 percent of the space. The bulk, or 45 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 39 percent of the space.

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