SoftStone, partners, pressured by Maverick, put LES project in bankruptcy

Nathan Weinberger’s SoftStone Development & Management and its partners, members of the Eisner family, placed a Lower East Side project at 75 Essex Street, also known as 232 Broome Street, into bankruptcy protection yesterday as it seeks to fend off an effort by lender Maverick Real Estate Partners to collect on a $9 million loan secured by the property that is allegedly in default.
SoftStone and the Eisners filed two separate chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn. Nathan Weinberger, using the alternate name Nechemia Weinberger, placed the entity 75 Essex Corner LLC, 1-25-41388-nhl, into bankruptcy, while Israel Eisner was the signatory for the chapter 11 bankruptcy for Eisner Bros. Realty Corp, 1-25-41389-nhl. It is likely the two cases will be consolidated under one of the filings.

Maverick filed a suit in August 2024, 654507/2024, alleging the loan was in default. The case remains ongoing.

SoftStone Development & Management, on April 26, 2022, filed plans with the city’s Department of Buildings for a project to build nine residential units on top of a commercial building at 75 Essex Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Nechemia Weinberger filed the plans. Nathan Weinberger is the president of SoftStone.

Shalom Eisner’s Eisner Brothers has owned the building since the 1970s. The building, constructed in the 1890s, was known as the Eastern Dispensary and was used to provide aid and treatment to the sick and poor. Since Eisner acquired it, the building has been used as a memorabilia store.

Eisner has debated selling the building for over a decade, asking $18 million for the building in 2010, $21 million for it in 2013, and then $30 million in 2014.

The property

The mixed-use building in Lower East Side has 12,876 square feet of built space and 5,348 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 18,218 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 51 feet and is 96 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,296 square feet. The zoning is C6-1 which allows for up to 6 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 3.44 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.5 million. The most recent loan totaled $9 million and was provided by Maverick Real Estate Partners on July 18, 2022.

Prior sales and revenue

The 12,876-square-foot property generated revenue of $311,522 or $24 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation and $350 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Lower East Side, The majority, or 51 percent of the 23.8 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, Lower East Side has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $227.6 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 29th highest in Manhattan. For development, Lower East Side has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 28th highest in Manhattan. It had 623,086 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 owners of 13 of the 19 commercial properties representing 169,490 square feet of the 240,350 square feet. The largest owner is 33 Equities, followed by Baruch Singer and then Entity With Address At Mark J. Nussbaum & Associates. On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 171,121 square feet. The largest is a 55-unit, 139,135 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Taconic Partners and filed by Peter Febo with plans filed September 11, 2014 and permitted March 15, 2016. The second largest is a 41-unit, 31,986 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Sharon Huang with plans filed March 23, 2020 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Softstone Development owned at least six commercial properties with 28 residential units in New York City with 40,011 square feet and a city-determined market value of $5.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 40 percent of the 40,011 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 32 percent of the space. The bulk, or 68 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 32 percent of the space.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 230 Broome Street, PincusCo identified eight commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those eight items, four were sales above $5 million totaling $48.8 million. The most recent of the four was SMA Equities which bought the 12,507-square-foot, 24-unit rental (C7) on 248 Broome Street and three other properties for $15.9 million from Forrest Partners on December 9, 2024. Of those eight items, four were loans above $5 million totaling $51.9 million. The most recent of the four was SMA Equities in which borrowed $28.9 million from Safra National Bank secured by the 12,507-square-foot, 24-unit rental (C7) on 248 Broome Street and three other properties on December 9, 2024.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.