Watermark, Borough Developers sign $20M refi with Citibank for two properties in Bushwick

Watermark Capital Group and Borough Developers through the entity 649 Hart St LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Citibank through the entity Citi Real Estate Funding Inc. valued at $20 million for two properties including the two-unit retail building (O8) at 176 Central Avenue and the 38-unit building at 649 Hart Street in Brooklyn.
The deal closed on November 15, 2024 and was recorded on November 19, 2024. The prior lender was S3 Capital which held debt that had an original loan amount of $17.2 million.

The signatory for Watermark Capital Group and Borough Developers was Meir D. Tabak. The signatory for Citibank was Ana Rosu Marmann.

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 $5,000 in ECB penalties and $11,155 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

On these lots, there are two active new building construction projects and major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million, totaling 56,070 square feet. The largest, B00695754, is a new building project for a 42-unit, 28,035 square-foot R-2 building submitted by LW Developers and filed by Lazar Waldman with plans filed March 25, 2022 and permitted May 1, 2023. The second largest, B00695754, is a new building project for a 42-unit, 28,035 square-foot R-2 building submitted by LW Developers|Lazar Waldman and filed by Lazar Waldman with plans filed March 25, 2022 and permitted May 1, 2023.

The neighborhood

In Bushwick, The bulk, or 44 percent of the 33.6 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Bushwick has 1.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $497.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 11th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Bushwick has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 661,987 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 176 Central Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 17 commercial properties representing 20,933 square feet of the 54,752 square feet. The largest owner is Moses Karpen, followed by Riseboro Community Partnership and then Xiaodan Lu.
On the tax block, there were four new building construction projects totaling 135,280 square feet. The largest is a 54-unit, 76,080 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Evan Stern and filed by Evan Stern with plans filed March 19, 2015 and permitted April 13, 2017. The second largest is a 42-unit, 28,035 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by LW Developers and filed by Lazar Waldman with plans filed March 25, 2022 and permitted May 1, 2023.

The majority, or 56 percent of the 54,752 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Watermark Capital Group owned at least 131 commercial properties with 1,471 residential units in New York City with 1,519,839 square feet and a city-determined market value of $299.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $151.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as BridgeCity Capital, Signature Bank, and Bridge City Funding respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 54 percent of the 1,519,839 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 20 percent of the space. The bulk, or 93 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 7 percent of the space.
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Borough Developers owned at least seven commercial properties in New York City with 63,575 square feet and a city-determined market value of $7.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $56 million in debt, borrowed from S3 Capital and Broadview Capital. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 90 percent of the 63,575 square feet of built space are V1 properties, with retail properties next occupying 10 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

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