Shulem Herman signs $50M refi loan with Signature Bank for specialty in Brownsville

Shulem Herman through the entity Pitkin Terrace LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Signature Bank valued at $50 million for the specialty building (W9) at 1501 Pitkin Avenue in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on November 10, 2022 and was recorded on November 15, 2022. The prior lender was Signature Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $46 million. The property has 129,654 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $385 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 26, 2017, for $53 million. The signatory for Shulem Herman was Shulem Herman. The signatory for Signature Bank was Nicholas A. LaMorte.

The property

The 1501 Pitkin Avenue parcel has frontage of 200 feet and is 169 feet deep with a total lot size of 34,602 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-3 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 2.43 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $26.9 million.The most recent loan totaled $6 million and was provided by Signature Bank on January 4, 2022.

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 received $600 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on August 27, 2012. 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 Brownsville, the bulk, or 46 percent of the 28.4 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, Brownsville has the 40th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in Brooklyn with $71.5 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Brownsville has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 19th highest in Brooklyn. It had 912,302 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owner of the one commercial property that spans that spans 129,654 square feet on the block. The identified owner is Shulem Herman.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

All properties are specialty.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Shulem Herman owned at least six commercial properties in New York City with 369,647 square feet and a city-determined market value of $55.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $68.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as Dime Community Bank, Broadview Funding, and Sterling National Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 369,647 square feet of built space are specialty properties, with elevator properties next occupying 31 percent of the space. The bulk, or 43 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 31 percent of the space.

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