Valley National Bank files $6.85M pre-foreclosure at AB Capstone project in Bronx

Valley National Bank filed a pre-foreclosure action against the developers and owners of the 10-unit building at 2406-2408 Hoffman Street in Belmont, the Bronx. The bank filed the case October 9, 2023 in State Supreme Court in the Bronx.

Case LINK

Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.

AB Capstone has been hit with a number of court actions over the past two years, while at the same time it has sold some properties.

Bank Leumi, which was later acquired by plaintiff Valley National Bank, provided the $6.85 million in construction debt between 2017 and 2019 to AB Capstone, led by Meir Babaev. The elevator building with 10 residential units in Belmont has 22,451 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 117 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,882 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 $2.9 million.

The building is a new construction project. Meir Babaev of Hoffman Street Develpmt LLC submitted a new building construction project for a 10-unit, 17,694 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 2406 Hoffman Street in Belmont, Bronx. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on May 22, 2015 under job number 220445481 and was permitted on April 20, 2017. It calls for the construction of a six-story building. The project is described in the filing as: application filed herewith for construction of residential six-story new building.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 22 commercial properties representing 57,465 square feet of the 155,636 square feet. The largest owner is Brooklyn Standard Properties, followed by Brusco Group and then Carmela De Benedictis. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 17,694 square feet. It is a 10-unit, 17,694 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Meir Babaev with plans filed May 22, 2015 and permitted April 20, 2017.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 2406 Hoffman Street, PincusCo identified two commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those two items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $33.9 million. The most recent of the two was Michael Perretta in which borrowed $10 million from Orange Bank & Trust Company secured by the 6,316-square-foot, three-unit three-family building (C0) on 2425 Hoffman Street and 10 other properties on June 30, 2022.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.