Watermark Capital signs $6.5M refi with CMFG Life for two walkups in Crown Heights

Watermark Capital Group through the entity Ben Sinai C LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender CMFG Life Insurance Company valued at $6.5 million for two residential walkup properties with 18 residential units including the 10-unit residential walkup building (C1) at 776 Classon Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and eight-unit residential walkup building (C1) at 774 Classon Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on January 15, 2026 and was recorded on January 26, 2026. The prior lender was Capital One which held debt that had an original loan amount of nan.The two properties have 14,557 square feet of built space and 58 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 14,625 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $446 and the price per buildable square foot is $444 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 Watermark Capital Group was Meir D. Tabak . The signatory for CMFG Life Insurance Company was Thomas C. Jensen .

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 776 Classon Avenue.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

The owner according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is Tom Rosenberg, head officer. The business entity is Ben Sinai C Llc. The two properties with a total of 14,557 square feet of built space generated revenue of $345,874 per year or $24 per square foot.

The property

The residential walkup building with 10 residential units in Crown Heights has 14,557 square feet of built space and 58 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 14,625 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 29 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,925 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 $2.2 million. The property has 10 rent regulated units according to city tax records from 2024.

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 not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot buildings, two out of the two buildings received a initial certificate of occupancy in the last ten years. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The block

On the tax block of 776 Classon Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of 18 of the 37 commercial properties representing 177,815 square feet of the 240,022 square feet. The largest owner is Bruce Ratner Family, followed by Elcorno Martin and then Joseph Banda.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 37,916 square feet. The largest is a 10-unit, 27,613 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Theordore Trachtenberg with plans filed February 22, 2022 and permitted December 6, 2022. The second largest is a 10-unit, 10,303 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Meral Property Group and filed by Louis Lebovits with plans filed February 21, 2024 and permitted December 31, 2024.

The majority, or 41 percent of the 240,022 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 33 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Watermark Capital Group owned at least 145 commercial properties with 1,670 residential units in New York City with 1,636,709 square feet and a city-determined market value of $328.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $459 million in debt, with top three lenders as Slate Property Group, BridgeCity Capital, and QuadReal Property Group respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 51 percent of the 1,636,709 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 16 percent of the space. The bulk, or 88 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 6 percent of the space.

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