Rubenstein Partners signs $178M loan with Apollo for Williamsburg development
Rubenstein Partners through the entity 19 Kent Acquisition LLC as borrower signed a refinance loan with lender Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance through the entity Acrefi Mortgage Lending, LLC valued at $177.8 million for the mixed-use commercial and industrial property at 25 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on March 4, 2022 and was recorded on March 17, 2022. The prior lender was Wells Fargo which held debt that had an original loan amount of $197 million. The property has 485,034 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $279 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 owner bought the property on December 24, 2015, for $132.4 million. The signatory for Rubenstein Partners was Craig G. Zolot. The signatory for Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance was Nari Na. Commercial Observer reports a Newmark team led by Dustin Stolly and Jordan Roeschlaub arranged the financing.
Prior sales and revenue
The 485,034-square-foot property generated revenue of $20.7 million or $43 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.
The property
The 19 Kent Avenue parcel has frontage of 200 feet and is 400 feet deep with a total lot size of 80,000 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-2 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $97.8 million.
Violations and lawsuits
The property was not involved in any lawsuits or bankruptcies in the past years. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received two DOB violations in the last year.
Development
For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on May 30, 2019. On these lots, there is one active new building construction project for a N/A-unit, 379,501-square-foot B building. The project was started by Toby Moskovits with plans filed October 31, 2013 and permitted September 15, 2016.
The neighborhood
In Williamsburg, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 65.1 million square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space. In sales, Williamsburg has the 9th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Williamsburg is the 6th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 8 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.
Surrounding
Within a 400-foot radius of 25 Kent Avenue, PincusCo identified three commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those three items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was an initial temporary certificate of occupancy issued on June 24, 2020 for the $1.5 million renovation of 41,177-square-foot B building with N/A residential units at 61 N 11th St.
Of those three items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $51.5 million. The most recent of the two was G4 Development Group which borrowed $13.5 million from Signature Bank secured by the 44,338-square-foot, one-unit office building (O2) on 35 Kent Avenue on January 18, 2022.
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