Simon Kaufman signs $28.9M refi with Greystone for new 59-unit rental in Washington Heights

Simon Kaufman through the entity 26 Sherman Residence LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Greystone & Co. valued at $28.9 million for the 59-unit residential elevator building (D7) at 26-34 Sherman Avenue in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
The deal closed on August 23, 2023 and was recorded on August 28, 2023. The prior lender was Valley National Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $24 million.

The property has 58,362 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $494 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 11, 2020, for $6.6 million. The signatory for Simon Kaufman was Simon Kaufman. The signatory for Greystone & Co. was Sharon Briskman.

Prior sales and revenue

The owner according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is Joseph Schwartz, head officer. The business entity is 26 Sherman Residence Llc.

The property

The residential elevator building with 59 residential units in Washington Heights has 58,362 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,999 square feet. The zoning is R7-2 which allows for up to 3.44 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.1 million. The most recent loan totaled $6.1 million and was provided by Valley National Bank on January 26, 2022.

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 $2,130 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on December 16, 2022. 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 20 of the 31 commercial properties representing 776,599 square feet of the 1,291,095 square feet. The largest owner is Sopher Group, followed by Solil Management and then Shloime Gross.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 258,443 square feet. It is a 222-unit, 258,443 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Arden Group and filed by Joseph Caruso with plans filed November 29, 2021 and permitted March 24, 2022.

The majority, or 73 percent of the 1.3 million square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Simon Kaufman owned at least 17 commercial properties with 469 residential units in New York City with 403,874 square feet and a city-determined market value of $30.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $214.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as SCALE Lending, BridgeCity Capital, and City National Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 76 percent of the 403,874 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 24 percent of the space. The bulk, or 67 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Brooklyn next at 31 percent of the space.

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