Wildflower Ltd. signs $16.5M refi loan with JPMorgan Chase for three properties in Hunts Point

Wildflower Ltd. through the entity Wf Industrial Ix LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender JPMorgan Chase valued at $16.5 million for three properties including the corner industrial building at 745 Whittier Street in Hunts Point, Bronx, specialty building at 1340 Lafayette Avenue in Hunts Point, Bronx, and midblock development building at 749 Whittier Street in Hunts Point, Bronx.
The deal closed on February 17, 2022 and was recorded on March 4, 2022. The prior lender was First Citizens Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $12.1 million.The three properties have 9,600 square feet of built space and 100,400 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 110,000 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $1,718 and the price per buildable square foot is $150 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 Wildflower Ltd. was Matthew A. Dicker. The signatory for JPMorgan Chase was Jennifer Lewin. Matthew A. Dicker is a Co-Founder, Partner and the Chief Financial Officer of Wildflower Ltd.

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 745 Whittier Street.

The property

The 745 Whittier Street parcel has frontage of 125 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 20,000 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-2 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.5 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The properties were not involved in any lawsuits or bankruptcies in the past years. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

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 Hunts Point, the majority, or 54 percent of the 15.8 million square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Hunts Point has 1.3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $370.3 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 2nd highest in Bronx. For development, Hunts Point has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 626,691 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 745 Whittier Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of 17 of the 44 commercial properties representing 738,982 square feet of the 1,318,798 square feet. The largest owner is City of New York, followed by Mhany and then MP Management. There is one active new building construction project totaling 84,871 square feet. It is a 108-unit, 84,871-square-foot R-2 building developed by Ismene Speliotis with plans filed October 27, 2017 and permitted August 20, 2018.

The majority, or 41 percent of the 1.6 million square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Wildflower Ltd. owned at least nine commercial properties with 479,466 square feet and a city-determined market value of $63.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $450 million in debt, with top three lenders as Ares Management, JPMorgan Chase, and CIT Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 85 percent of the 479,466 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with development properties next occupying 11 percent of the space. The bulk, or 94 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Bronx next at 6 percent of the space.

Surrounding

PincusCo has not identified any commercial real estate items of interest within a 400-foot radius of 745 Whittier Street that occurred over the past 24 months.

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