Watermark Capital files plans for 198 units at $66.5M Downtown Brooklyn parcel
175 Pearl Street axonometric rendering (Credit - Shmuel Wieder architect via DOB)
Wolfe Landau’s Watermark Capital Group submitted a major alteration application for a conversion of a nine-story retail (M) building at 175 Pearl Street in Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn, to a 17-story residential building with 198 units. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on September 30, 2024 under job number B01101684. It calls for an increase in the size of the building from a nine-story building with no dwelling units to a 17-story building with 198 dwelling units. The project is described in the filing as: proposed 17-story mixed-use building, vertical enlargement. A Joel Werczberger filed the plans. It’s unclear if this is the same as Joel Wercberger identified on the Watermark Capital Group website or Joel Werzberger identified as the “municipal consultant” for the project.
This property was sold by Cannon Hill Capital Partners for $66.5 million to Watermark Capital Group on May 29, 2024.
175 Pearl Street
| wdt_ID | floor | comment | description | persons_permitted | occupancy_label | zoning_use | dwelling_units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cellar | Apartment | 20 | Residential | |||
| 2 | Cellar | ||||||
| 3 | 1 | Apartment | 20 | Residential | 11 | ||
| 4 | 1 | OFFICE, LOBBY | Business and Service | 68 | Business | 6 | |
| 5 | 1 | ||||||
| 6 | 1 | ||||||
| 7 | 2 | Apartment | 40 | Residential | 21 | ||
| 8 | 2 | OFFICES, MECHANICAL | Business and Service | 210 | Business | 6 | |
| 9 | 3 | Apartment | 100 | Residential | 21 | ||
| 10 | 3 | OFFICES, MECHANICAL | Business and Service | 210 | Business | 6 | |
| 11 | 4 | Apartment | 100 | Residential | 21 | ||
| 12 | 4 | ||||||
| 13 | 5 | Apartment | 100 | Residential | 21 | ||
| 14 | 5 | ||||||
| 15 | 6 | Apartment | 100 | Residential | 21 | ||
| 16 | 6 | ||||||
| 17 | 7 | Apartment | 100 | Residential | 21 | ||
| 18 | 7 | ||||||
| 19 | 8 | Apartment | 100 | Residential | 21 | ||
| 20 | 8 | ||||||
| 21 | 9 | Apartment | 100 | Residential | 0 | ||
| 22 | 9 | Interior office, exterior accessory terrace for passive recreation. | Business and Service | 34 | Business | 6 | 0 |
| 23 | 10 | Apartment | 100 | Residential | 5 | ||
| 24 | 11 | Apartment | 100 | Residential | 5 | ||
| 25 | 12 | Apartment | 100 | Residential | 5 |
The property
The office building in Downtown Brooklyn has 184,965 square feet of built space and 27,159 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 212,180 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 205 feet and is 103 feet deep with a total lot size of 21,218 square feet. The zoning is M1-6/R10 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $29 million. The most recent loan totaled $59 million and was provided by BridgeCity Capital on May 29, 2024.
Development
For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on August 22, 2013.
Violations and lawsuits
According to city public data, the property has received $1,250 in ECB penalties and $1,250 in OATH penalties in the last year.
There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.
The neighborhood
In Downtown Brooklyn, The bulk, or 40 percent of the 22.6 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space. In sales, Downtown Brooklyn has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $473.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 12th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Downtown Brooklyn has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 3rd highest in Brooklyn. It had 4.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 19 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.
The block
On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the two commercial properties representing 657,932 square feet of the 657,932 square feet. The two identified owners are Breaking Ground and Watermark Capital Group. There are no other active new building construction projects on this tax block.
The owner
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 surrounding
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Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.