Wharton Properties sells 8-unit walkup in Williamsburg to Japanese firm for $9.8M

The Japanese company Creas Inc. paid $9.8 million to Wharton Properties through the entity 117 North 4th St LLC for the eight-unit residential walkup building (C1) at 117 North 4th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on September 13, 2023 and was recorded on September 22, 2023. The property has 6,500 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,500 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.)
Wharton Properties bought the property on July 31, 2020, for $2.8 million. The signatory for Wharton Properties was Joseph Sutton. The contract date was August 1, 2023. Creas Inc. is a Japanese company with the property managed by Efficiency Capital Advisors, and has purchased at least two other properties in New York City.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Creas Inc. purchased two other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Wharton Properties purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $9.5 million and sold seven properties in six transactions for a total of $70.2 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Eric Setton, head officer and Jay Gelb, site manager. The business entity is 117 North 4th St Llc.

The property

The residential walkup building with 8 residential units in Williamsburg has 6,500 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,499 square feet. The zoning is R6B which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.6 million. The most recent loan totaled $6.1 million and was provided by Valley National Bank on May 12, 2023.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received two DOB violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on June 22, 2023. Eric Setton of 117 North 4 LLC submitted a major alteration application for a rehab of the eight-unit, 6,541 square-foot residential (RES) building at 117 North 4 Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on October 13, 2020 under job number 321598437 and was permitted on November 18, 2021. It call for a rehab of the four-story building.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 11 commercial properties representing 25,616 square feet of the 92,421 square feet. The largest owner is Wharton Properties, followed by Rafal Wierciak and then Miura Yoshiki.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 75 percent of the 92,421 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Wharton Properties owned at least 22 commercial properties with 67 residential units in New York City with 631,065 square feet and a city-determined market value of $484.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $691.8 million in debt, with top three lenders as Aareal Capital, JPMorgan Chase, and Valley National Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 43 percent of the 631,065 square feet of built space are office properties, with retail properties next occupying 41 percent of the space. The bulk, or 79 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 19 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link