Wildflower Ltd. signs $27M ground lease in Hunts Point, plans parking lot

Wildflower Ltd. through the entity WF Industrial XI LLC signed a 99-year ground lease valued at $27 million with the Szabo family through the entity Edgewhitt LLC covering eight contiguous tax parcels including the industrial building (F4) at 913 Edgewater Road, industrial building (F4) at 900 Whittier Street, the industrial building (F9) at 880 Whittier Street, all in Hunts Point, Bronx. The expected use is to convert it to a large parking lot for Hunts Point logistical needs.
The deal closed on November 1, 2024 and was recorded on November 12, 2024. The eight properties have 58,684 square feet of built space and 151,638 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 210,322 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $460 and the price per buildable square foot is $128 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 the Szabo family was Judith S. Szabo and Lynn Kuszel. The signatory for Wildflower Ltd. was Adam I. Gordon. Aaron Szabo ran General Fire-Proof Door Corp. from this location.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Wildflower Ltd. had purchased any other properties and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $18 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Judith S. Szabo had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. Out of the eight properties, seven with a total of 58,684 square feet of built space generated revenue of $830,859 per year.

The property

The zoning is M1-2 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing.

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 received $6,250 in ECB penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Hunts Point, The majority, or 59 percent of the 14.4 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Hunts Point has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $89.2 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Hunts Point has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 842,229 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 913 Edgewater Road, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 43 commercial properties representing 238,037 square feet of the 690,884 square feet. The largest owner is Nuveen Real Estate, followed by Department of Homeless Services and then Rami Segal.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 51,934 square feet. The largest is a 28-unit, 23,944 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Ari Thaler with plans filed August 29, 2018 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 40-unit, 21,231 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Greg Harvey with plans filed February 12, 2021 and permitted July 26, 2022.

The majority, or 47 percent of the 690,884 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 33 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Wildflower Ltd. owned at least 24 commercial properties in New York City with 724,327 square feet and a city-determined market value of $69.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $348.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as PIMCO, Ares Management, and JPMorgan Chase respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 100 percent of the 724,327 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with G7 properties next occupying 0 percent of the space. They are all located in Queens.

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