Tower Real Estate signs contract with church to buy 3 parcels in Bedford Stuyvesant

Tower Real Estate Investments through the entity Landmark Living LLC signed a contract as buyer with King Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church as seller for three parcels including the religious buildings (M9) at 188 Bainbridge Street and 340 Malcolm X Boulevard and the two-unit mixed-use building (S2) at 344 Malcolm X Boulevard, all in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The memorandum of contract did not disclose a price or down payment.
The memorandum was signed on October 4, 2023 and was recorded on October 16, 2023. The three properties have 22,548 square feet of built space and 6,953 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 29,497 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.
The signatories for King Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church included Martha McCoy and Phyllis Thompson. The signatory for Tower Real Estate Investments was Rafael Reihanian. Morris Tehrani filed demolition plans for two of the tax lots.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 188 Bainbridge Street.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Tower Real Estate Investments had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller King Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The specialty building in Bedford Stuyvesant has 22,548 square feet of built space and 6,953 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 29,497 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 80 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 8,000 square feet. The zoning is R6B which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $468,000.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received five DOB violations and $650 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Bedford Stuyvesant, The bulk, or 35 percent of the 54.7 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 29 percent of the space. In sales, Bedford Stuyvesant has 3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 4th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Bedford Stuyvesant has 3.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 5th highest in Brooklyn. It had 3.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 188 Bainbridge Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 12 commercial properties representing 79,000 square feet of the 99,132 square feet. The largest owner is Samuel Kairy, followed by Neighborhood Restore HDFC and then Joseph Yaakovzadeh.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 3,000 square feet. It is a three-unit, 3,000 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Rona Reodica with plans filed March 5, 2019 and permitted December 7, 2021.

The majority, or 72 percent of the 99,132 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space.

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