Tankhouse signs $36.2M construction loan with Bank Hapoalim for 26-unit project in Fort Greene

Tankhouse through the entity 134vap, LLC as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender Bank Hapoalim valued at $36.2 million for the project at 134 Vanderbilt Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Tankhouse, on January 20, filed a permit application for construction of a 26-unit, 45,638-square-foot mixed-use building at 134 Vanderbilt Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Sebastian Mendez, founder of Tankhouse, filed the plans.
The deal closed on December 21, 2022 and was recorded on December 29, 2022. The property has 2,192 square feet of built space and 37,380 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 39,556 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $16,532 and the price per buildable square foot is $916 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 March 4, 2020, for $10 million. The signatory for Tankhouse was Sam Alison-Mayne.

The property

The 134 Vanderbilt Avenue parcel has frontage of 167 feet and is 104 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,889 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $490,000.

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 $2,000 in ECB penalties and $2,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

On the lot, there  is a new building project for a 26-unit, 45,638 square-foot R-2 building developed by Sebastian Mendez with plans filed January 20, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The neighborhood

In Fort Greene, the bulk, or 28 percent of the 11.5 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Fort Greene has 1.6 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $553.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 10th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Fort Greene has 2.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 8th highest in Brooklyn. It had 2.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 20 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 15 commercial properties representing 25,067 square feet of the 101,661 square feet. The two identified owners are Tankhouse and Joseph Rastegar.

The majority, or 40 percent of the 101,661 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 37 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Tankhouse owned at least five commercial properties in New York City with 71,937 square feet and a city-determined market value of $13.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $64.6 million in debt, borrowed from Bank Hapoalim and Israel Discount Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 71 percent of the 71,937 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 14 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

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