Westhab pays $8.8M to Roman Catholic Church, gets $72.9M loan for 105-unit project in Fort Greene

Affordable developer Westhab through the entity 108 St. Edwards Housing Development Fund paid $8.8 million to the Roman Catholic Church through the entity St. Edwards Roman Catholic Church for the specialty building (M1) at 108 St Edwards Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 105-unit residential R-2 building. The project was submitted by Michael Campo of the Diocese of Brooklyn with plans filed December 2, 2021 and it has not been permitted yet.

The deal closed on November 3, 2022 and was recorded on November 9, 2022.
The signatory for Roman Catholic Church was Henry J. Torres and Anna Chen. The signatory for Westhab was Richard Nightingale. The contract date was November 16, 2020, nearly two years before the closing.
To finance the development, Westhab through the entity 108 St. Edwards Housing Development Fund Corp as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender UMB Bank valued at $72.9 million for the specialty building (M1) at 108 St Edwards Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has records that the buyer Westhab purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $29.1 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Roman Catholic Church purchased one properties in one transactions for a total of $1.5 million and sold 19 properties in 12 transactions for a total of $104 million over the same time period.

The property

The 108 St Edwards Street parcel has frontage of 174 feet and is 116 feet deep with a total lot size of 24,000 square feet. The lot is irregular. 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 $2.2 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Fort Greene, the bulk, or 28 percent of the 11.5 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Fort Greene has 1.5 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $532.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 10th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Fort Greene has 2.3 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 9th highest in Brooklyn. It had 2.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 20 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 700,355 square feet of the 700,355 square feet. The two identified owners are L+M Development Partners and Metropolitan Realty Group.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 32,133 square feet. It is a 105-unit, 32,133-square-foot R-2 building developed by Michael Campo with plans filed December 2, 2021 and it has not been permitted yet.

all properties are elevator.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Roman Catholic Church owned at least 145 commercial properties in New York City with 3,641,677 square feet and a city-determined market value of $637.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 50 percent of the 3,641,677 square feet of built space are specialty properties, with M1 properties next occupying 27 percent of the space. The bulk, or 47 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 30 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Westhab owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 32,000 square feet and a city-determined market value of $7.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $102.1 million in debt, borrowed from UMB Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 100 percent of the 32,000 square feet of built space are office properties, with development properties next occupying 0 percent of the space. They are all located in Queens.

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