Shaban Mehaj pays $12.5M for 123-unit rental in Bedford Park

UPDATED 9:15 a.m., April 28, 2025: Shaban Mehaj through the entity MH Jerome LLC paid $12.5 million to Scharf Group through the entity Jerome Enterprises, LLC for the 123-unit residential elevator building (D1) at 2914 Jerome Avenue in Bedford Park, Bronx. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on April 23, 2025 and was recorded on April 25, 2025. The property has 124,492 square feet of built space and 58,320 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 182,857 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $100 and the price per buildable square foot is $68 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 seller bought the property on September 30, 2013, for $13.2 million. The signatory for Scharf Group was Manuel Scharf . The signatory for Shaban Mehaj was Shaban Mehaj. The contract date was January 1, 2025.

The sale was brokered by Rosewood Realty Group’s Aaron Jungreis, Ben Khakshoor, Alex Fuchs and Reouven Elharar.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Shaban Mehaj purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $8 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Scharf Group had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Moshe Katzenstein, head officer and Jacob Eisenstein, agent. The business entities are Ek Realty, Llc and Jerome Enterprises Llc. The 124,492-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.9 million or $15 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The residential elevator building with 123 residential units in Bedford Park has 124,492 square feet of built space and 58,320 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 182,857 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 225 feet and is 135 feet deep with a total lot size of 30,375 square feet. The zoning is R8 which allows for up to 6.02 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.6 million. The most recent loan totaled $10.2 million and was provided by Apple Capital Funding on November 30, 2022. The property has 34 rent regulated units according to city tax records from 2023.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received 31 housing violations and $1,975 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 $1 million on this tax lot.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 13 of the 23 commercial properties representing 567,657 square feet of the 1,030,014 square feet. The largest owner is Manuel Scharf, followed by Vilson Lumaj and then Miller Management.
On the tax block, there were four new building construction projects totaling 261,429 square feet. The largest is a 116-unit, 149,137 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Project Renewal and filed by Eric Rosenbaum with plans filed June 28, 2019 and permitted December 29, 2022. The second largest is a 64-unit, 64,040 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Mirza Rahman and filed by Mirza Rahman with plans filed December 2, 2021 and permitted December 9, 2024.

The majority, or 64 percent of the 1 million square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 35 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Shaban Mehaj owned at least three commercial properties with 83 residential units in New York City with 96,100 square feet and a city-determined market value of $8.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 93 percent of the 96,100 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with retail properties next occupying 7 percent of the space. They are all located in Bronx.

UPDATED with broker information.

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