Settlement Housing Fund signs $63.1M rehab construction loan for three residential walkup properties in Crown Heights

Settlement Housing Fund through the entity St Johns Place Family Center Housing Development as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender UMB Bank valued at $63.1 million for three residential walkup properties including the 33-unit residential walkup building (C7) at 1620 St Johns Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 33-unit residential walkup building (C7) at 1604 St Johns Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and 34-unit residential walkup building (C1) at 1630 St Johns Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on July 6, 2022 and was recorded on July 21, 2022. The three properties have 140,560 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $449 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 Settlement Housing Fund was Jacqueline Tom. Jacqueline Tom is the general counsel for Settlement Housing Fund.

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 1630 St Johns Place.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Valerie Figueroa, head officer and Terrence Sobers, officer. The business entity is St Johns Place Family Center Hdfc. The three properties with a total of 140,560 square feet of built space generated revenue of $2.3 million per year or $16 per square foot.

The property

The 1630 St Johns Place parcel has frontage of 105 feet and is 130 feet deep with a total lot size of 13,711 square feet. The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.8 million.

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 four DOB violations, $36,905 in ECB penalties, $39,705 in OATH penalties, and one housing litigation 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 block

On the tax block of 1630 St Johns Place, PincusCo has identified the owners of 22 of the 27 commercial properties representing 343,470 square feet of the 393,697 square feet. The largest owner is Settlement Housing Fund, followed by Wolf Sicherman and then Hudson Companies. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 99 percent of the 393,697 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 1 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Settlement Housing Fund owned at least 18 commercial properties in New York City with 1,503,374 square feet and a city-determined market value of $72.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $141.6 million in debt, borrowed from NYC Housing Development Corporation and ORIX Real Estate. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 38 percent of the 1,503,374 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with D4 properties next occupying 32 percent of the space. The bulk, or 46 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Brooklyn next at 29 percent of the space.

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