Solomon Schwimmer pays $22.5M for potential dev site in Downtown Brooklyn

Solomon Schwimmer through the entity Lawrence Heights Holdings LLC paid $22.5 million to Chuen Po Kao and Jacqueline Kao through the entity Ching-Tien Realty Inc. for the mixed-use building (K4) at 150-154 Lawrence Street in Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on February 16, 2023 and was recorded on February 27, 2023. The property has 19,437 square feet of built space and 40,419 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 59,880 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,157 and the price per buildable square foot is $375 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 Chuen Po Kao and Jacqueline Kao was Chuen Po Kao and Jacqueline Kao. The signatory for Solomon Schwimmer was Solomon Schwimmer. The sellers owned the property for 50 years, since 1973. The contact date was July 27, 2022.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Solomon Schwimmer purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $5.6 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Chuen Po Kao had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 19,437-square-foot property generated revenue of $688,579 or $35 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 150-154 Lawrence Street parcel has frontage of 64 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,988 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C6-4.5 which allows for up to 12 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.9 million.

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 not received any significant violations 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 neighborhood

In Downtown Brooklyn, the bulk, or 39 percent of the 24.1 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Downtown Brooklyn has 3.8 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.3 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 2nd highest in Brooklyn. For development, Downtown Brooklyn has 3.7 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 4th highest in Brooklyn. It had 3.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 15 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 24 commercial properties representing 15,234 square feet of the 136,044 square feet. The identified owner is United American Land.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 8,348 square feet. It is a 8,348-square-foot retail (M) building developed by Albert Laboz with plans filed January 7, 2020 and permitted April 21, 2021.

The majority, or 89 percent of the 136,044 square feet of built space are mixed-use buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 11 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Solomon Schwimmer owned at least 32 commercial properties in New York City with 323,550 square feet and a city-determined market value of $54.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $153.7 million in debt, with top three lenders as Valley National Bank, Sabal Capital Partners, and Parke Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 50 percent of the 323,550 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 48 percent of the space. The bulk, or 94 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Bronx next at 6 percent of the space.

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