Witnick pays $27.5M to Madison Realty Capital for 62-unit rental in Clinton Hill

Witnick Real Estate Partners through the entity 97 Grand Partners LLC paid Madison Realty Capital through the entity 97 Grand Avenue BK LLC $27.5 million for the 62-unit, seven-story, 60,210-square-foot rental building with addresses 97 Grand Avenue and 96 Steuben Street, in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

The sale closed on March 14, 2024 after going into contract on December 14, 2023, and was recorded on March 22, 2024. The signatory for Madison Realty Capital was Urian Yap, and for Witnick it was Isaac Abraham.

Witnick financed the deal with an $18.29 million loan from Arbor Realty Trust which was assigned to Fannie Mae.

A team from Alpha Realty led by Lev Mavashev brokered the sale for both sides, according to sources familiar with the deal.

Madison Realty Capital acquired title to the property in 2017. The prior owners were Chaim Miller and Sam Sprei.

The property

The elevator building with 62 residential units in Clinton Hill has 60,210 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has two buildings with frontage of 75 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 14,774 square feet. The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $12.7 million.

Prior sales and revenue

The 60,210-square-foot property generated revenue of $2.1 million or $35 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Development

Michael Maidan of Grand Avenue Development submitted a new building construction project for a 62-unit residential (J-2) building at 97 Grand Avenue. The plan was filed on February 18, 2005 and was permitted on September 1, 2009. It calls for the construction of a 90-foot tall, eight-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number 301910243.

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on May 29, 2014.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received four housing violations and $200 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Clinton Hill, The bulk, or 34 percent of the 10.8 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space. In sales, Clinton Hill has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $270.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 27th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Clinton Hill has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 33rd highest in Brooklyn. It had 207,773 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 29 commercial properties representing 146,635 square feet of the 192,685 square feet. The largest owner is Abraham Grunhut, followed by Aum Group and then Ben-Josef Group Holdings. On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 66,755 square feet. The largest is a 43-unit, 29,953 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Arch Companies and filed by Jeff Simpson with plans filed May 23, 2014 and permitted August 17, 2015. The second largest is a 29-unit, 25,699 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Arch Companies and filed by Jeff Simpson with plans filed May 28, 2014 and permitted July 15, 2015.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Madison Realty Capital owned at least 65 commercial properties with 2,695 residential units in New York City with 2,966,525 square feet and a city-determined market value of $413.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.4 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Signature Bank, MF1 Capital, and Elliott Investment Management respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 73 percent of the 2,966,525 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 12 percent of the space. The bulk, or 39 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Brooklyn next at 32 percent of the space.

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Julia Rodriguez, head officer and Vesa Naka, agent. The business entities are Silverstone Property Group, Llc and 97 Grand Avenue Bk Llc.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 101 Grand Avenue, PincusCo identified three commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those three items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $37 million. The most recent of the two was Ben-Josef Group Holdings which bought the 33,949-square-foot, 43-unit rental (D3) on 100 Steuben Street for $22.3 million from UBS Realty Investors on August 11, 2023. One of those three items was a loan which Bruce Ratner family borrowed $157.1 million from Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen Girozentrale secured by the 39,260-square-foot, 36-unit rental (D1) on 105 Grand Avenue and 13 other properties on June 28, 2022.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.