Uzi Shvut pays $2.2M to Steven Chera for retail in Longwood

Uzi Shvut through the entity 2944 Realty LLC paid $2.2 million to Steven Chera through the entity 2944 Third Avenue Realty LLC for the midblock retail building at 2944 3rd Avenue in Longwood, Bronx.
The deal closed on May 27, 2022 and was recorded on June 23, 2022. The property has 4,332 square feet of built space and 3,119 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 7,451 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $513 and the price per buildable square foot is $298 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 seller bought the property on July 22, 2014, for $1.9 million. The signatory for Steven Chera was Steven Chera. The signatory for Uzi Shvut was Uzi Shvut.

Prior sales and revenue

The seller Steven Chera purchased two properties in one transactions for a total of $5.4 million and sold two properties in two transactions for a total of $2.1 million over the same time period.

The property

The 2944 3rd Avenue parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 86 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,166 square feet. The zoning is C4-4 which allows for up to 3.4 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 $1.6 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 Longwood, the bulk, or 36 percent of the 27.1 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space. In sales, Longwood has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $199.5 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Longwood has 3.8 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 3rd highest in Bronx. It had 3.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 13 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 22 commercial properties representing 167,543 square feet of the 470,173 square feet. The largest owner is Starwood Capital Group, followed by Top Rock Holdings and then Uzi Shvut. There is one active new building construction project totaling 124,249 square feet. It is a 124,249-square-foot school (E) building developed by Meir Babaev with plans filed January 7, 2019 and permitted December 11, 2020.

The majority, or 38 percent of the 470,173 square feet of built space are mixed-use buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Steven Chera owned at least three commercial properties with 31,594 square feet and a city-determined market value of $13.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $24.6 million in debt, borrowed from Ladder Capital. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 72 percent of the 31,594 square feet of built space are retail properties, with industrial properties next occupying 28 percent of the space. They are all located in Bronx.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Uzi Shvut owned at least 16 commercial properties with 91,598 square feet and a city-determined market value of $14.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $33.8 million in debt, borrowed from Barclays and Citibank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 65 percent of the 91,598 square feet of built space are retail properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 35 percent of the space. The bulk, or 52 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Queens next at 24 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 2944 3rd Avenue, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those four items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on January 26, 2022 for a 78,693-square-foot R-2 building with 69 residential units at 2976 3rd Avenue.
One of those four items was a sale which Top Rock Holdings bought the 11,450-square-foot, one-unit retail building (K1) on 2968 3rd Avenue for $8.8 million from the Jackson Group on September 2, 2021.
Of those four items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $18.5 million. The most recent of the two was Rockaway Capital Partners which borrowed $12.5 million from Investors Bank secured by the 23,000-square-foot, 20-unit rental (D5) on 413 East 152nd Street on May 6, 2022.

Direct link to Acris document. link