Sela Group signs $14M refi loan with Amalgamated Bank for three properties in Greenpoint

Sela Group through the entity Manhattan Avenue Hotel LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Amalgamated Bank valued at $14 million for three properties including the hotel building (HR) at 1109 Manhattan Avenue and two adjacent and vacant parcels on Clay Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on June 27, 2022 and was recorded on August 9, 2022. The prior lender was Madison Realty Capital which held debt that had an original loan amount of $13.1 million. The three properties have 35,825 square feet of built space and 8,000 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 36,000 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $390 and the price per buildable square foot is $388 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 Sela Group was Gal Sela. The signatory for Amalgamated Bank was Jacob Nimmer.

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 1109 Manhattan Avenue.

Prior sales and revenue

The owner according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is Aisha Rodriguez, head officer. The business entity is Manhattan Avenue Hotel, Llc. Out of the three properties, one with a total of 35,825 square feet of built space generated revenue of $2 million per year.

The property

The 1109 Manhattan Avenue parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 190 feet deep with a total lot size of 14,000 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R6B which allows for up to 2 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 $15 million and was provided by Madison Realty Capital on March 16, 2022.

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 $2,200 in ECB penalties, two housing violations, and $5,000 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 Greenpoint, the bulk, or 29 percent of the 23.4 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space. In sales, Greenpoint has 1.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $645.1 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 6th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Greenpoint has 3.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 4th highest in Brooklyn. It had 3.8 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 16 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other hotel buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 1109 Manhattan Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of 20 of the 23 commercial properties representing 188,135 square feet of the 197,431 square feet. The largest owner is Bo Jin Zhu, followed by Sela Group and then Leszek Dudzinski.
There are three active new building construction projects totaling 270,639 square feet. The largest is a 186-unit, 142,096-square-foot R-2 building developed by Yoel Schwimmer with plans filed July 18, 2018 and permitted April 28, 2022. The second largest is a 139-unit, 102,159-square-foot R-2 building developed by Yoel Schwimmer with plans filed July 18, 2018 and permitted May 2, 2022.

The majority, or 62 percent of the 197,431 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space.

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