VAJA Group pays $6M for 56-unit dev site in East Morrisania

VAJA Group through the entity 173rd Owner LLC paid $6 million to the entity Boone Avenue Realty Corp. for the industrial building (G2) at 1003 East 173rd Street in East Morrisania, Bronx. The expected use is ground up development.

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project, X01150556, for a 56-unit, 38,916 square-foot residential (R-2) building. The project was submitted by VAJA Group and filed by Moses Freund with plans filed March 27, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet.
The deal closed on June 25, 2025 and was recorded on July 2, 2025. The property has 27,000 square feet of built space and 33,000 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 60,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $222 and the price per buildable square foot is $100 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 Charlotte Kuey was Charlotte Kuey. The signatory for VAJA Group was Chaim Wiesenfeld . The contract date was January 25, 2024. Vaja Group recently purchased a nearby property, 1670 Boone Avenue.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer VAJA Group purchased 12 properties in nine transactions for a total of $51.2 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Charlotte Kuey had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The industrial building in East Morrisania has 27,000 square feet of built space and 33,000 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 60,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 20,000 square feet. The zoning is R6A which allows for up to 3 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.4 million.

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 not received any significant violations in the last year.

The neighborhood

In East Morrisania, The bulk, or 43 percent of the 12 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, East Morrisania has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $127.6 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, East Morrisania has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 5th highest in Bronx. It had 1.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 11 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the five commercial properties representing 10,000 square feet of the 66,900 square feet. The identified owner is The Bridge.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 74,841 square feet. The largest is a 56-unit, 38,916 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by VAJA Group and filed by Moses Freund with plans filed March 27, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 66-unit, 35,925 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by The Bridge, Inc. and filed by Carole Gordon with plans filed April 22, 2020 and permitted August 25, 2023.

All properties are industrial.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Vaja Group owned at least 22 commercial properties with 526 residential units in New York City with 191,884 square feet and a city-determined market value of $22.7 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 20 percent of the 191,884 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with industrial properties next occupying 18 percent of the space. The bulk, or 77 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Queens next at 23 percent of the space.

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