Wheelhouse pays $3.5M for retail condo in East Williamsburg

Wheelhouse through the entity 228 Bushwick Avenue Associates LLC paid $3.5 million to Simkho “Sammy” Aranbayev through the entity 228 Bushwick Ave LLC for the retail condo and four parking spaces at 228 Bushwick Avenue in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on June 2, 2022 and was recorded on June 15, 2022. The condo units have 6,462 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $541 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 Simkho “Sammy” Aranbayev was Simkho “Sammy” Aranbayev. The signatory for Wheelhouse was Howard Lev. Howard Lev is a managing member of Wheelhouse.

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 228 Bushwick Avenue.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has no record that the buyer Wheelhouse had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Simkho “Sammy” Aranbayev purchased four properties in four transactions for a total of $14.5 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The 228 Bushwick Avenue parcel has a total lot size of 5,850 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $862,000.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties since September of 2020. 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, one out of the five 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 $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In East Williamsburg, the majority, or 58 percent of the 17.8 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 9 percent of the space. In sales, East Williamsburg has 1.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $335.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 12th highest in Brooklyn. For development, East Williamsburg has 1.4 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 15th highest in Brooklyn. It had 1.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 228 Bushwick Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of 14 of the 28 commercial properties representing 165,798 square feet of the 272,488 square feet. The largest owner is KUBERSKY Management, followed by Zvi Markowitz and then Lily Fan. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

the majority, or 40 percent of the 204,450 square feet of built space are residential walkup buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 39 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Simkho “Sammy” Aranbayev owned at least four commercial properties with 42,356 square feet and a city-determined market value of $6.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 84 percent of the 42,356 square feet of built space are retail properties, with walkup properties next occupying 16 percent of the space. The bulk, or 84 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Queens next at 16 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 228 Bushwick Avenue, Pincusco identified eight commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those eight items, two were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were two permits with a total initial cost of $1.7 million. The most recent of these two items was the permit on November 10, 2020 for a 7,500-square-foot R-2 building with 10 residential units at 209 Montrose Avenue.
Of those eight items, six were loans above $5 million totaling $49.7 million. The most recent of the six was Joel Schwartz which borrowed $6.8 million from Customers Bank secured by the 7,750-square-foot, 10-unit rental (C1) on 209 Montrose Avenue on February 8, 2022.

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