Vaja Group pays $4.4M to NorthEast Community Bank for dev site in Fordham Manor

Vaja Group through the entity Vaja Kingsbridge LLC paid $4.4 million through a real estate owned [REO] transaction to NorthEast Community Bank through the entity NECB Real Estate LLC for the development site (V0) at 2660 Kingsbridge Terrace in Fordham Manor, Bronx. The expected use is ground up development.
The deal closed on June 30, 2025 and was recorded on July 16, 2025. The property has zero square feet of built space and 30,659 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 30,659 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $141 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 bank took back the property on May 20, 2019, with a transfer of $495,000. The signatory for NorthEast Community Bank was Jose Collazo . The signatory for Vaja Group was Moses Freund . The contract date was June 30, 2025. The owner prior to the foreclosure was Yisroel A. Thaler, who borrowed $12.8 million from NorthEast Community Bank.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Vaja Group purchased 15 properties in 10 transactions for a total of $66.9 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller NorthEast Community Bank had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 76 feet and is 169 feet deep with a total lot size of 12,617 square feet. The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $887,000. The most recent loan totaled $12.8 million and was provided by Northeast Community Bank on March 9, 2020.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $10,000 in ECB penalties and $18,500 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

On the lot, there are three active new building construction projects and major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million, totaling 51,595 square feet. The largest, 210179625, is a new building project for a 36-unit, 30,871 square-foot R-2 building submitted by Micasa Living and filed by Ari Thaler with plans filed May 24, 2019 and permitted June 18, 2020. The second largest, 220652345, is a new building project for a 15-unit, 19,634 square-foot R-1 building submitted by Ari Thaler with plans filed June 4, 2018 and it has not been permitted yet.

The neighborhood

In Fordham Manor, The bulk, or 35 percent of the 18.4 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space. In sales, Fordham Manor has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $175.2 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Fordham Manor has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 821,279 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other development buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 14 of the 22 commercial properties representing 363,552 square feet of the 401,999 square feet. The largest owner is Jewish Board Of Family And Children’S Services, followed by Longacre Asset Management and then Ruben Diaz.
On the tax block, there were eight new building construction projects totaling 141,205 square feet. The largest is a 36-unit, 30,871 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Micasa Living and filed by Ari Thaler with plans filed May 24, 2019 and permitted June 18, 2020. The second largest is a 40-unit, 27,022 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Paul Lumaj and filed by Paul Lumaj with plans filed February 21, 2022 and permitted January 11, 2023.

The majority, or 47 percent of the 401,999 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 46 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Vaja Group owned at least 24 commercial properties with 526 residential units in New York City with 218,884 square feet and a city-determined market value of $24.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $48.9 million in debt, with top three lenders as Northeast Community Bank, NorthEast Community Bank, and Integritas Capital respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 29 percent of the 218,884 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with walkup properties next occupying 18 percent of the space. The bulk, or 80 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Queens next at 20 percent of the space.

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