Wolfe Landau’s Watermark, Maguire Capital acquire control of large Sunset Park dev site, up to 850K sf

By Adam Pincus

Brooklyn investors Wolfe Landau and David Tabak of Watermark Capital Group and Marvin Azrak of Maquire Capital Group through the entity 62-08 Realty LLC acquired control of a large development site at 6208 8th Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, after more than a year of partial interest buyouts, other investor buyers and legal wrangling.

The partners can move forward with a development with as much as 850,000 square feet of potential, according to a source familiar with the plans. The project, which is adjacent to an N subway stop, requires a Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) review to achieve the full development size.
The total cost so far to acquire the property has been about $85 million. The developers plan to build about 500,000 square feet of residential space and several hundred thousand square feet of commercial including retail.
The parcel has been involved in at least three lawsuits including from purported lenders to prior owners, over the past two years, and PincusCo reported on an early Watermark purchase of an interest in this property for $11.5 million, in 2021 from Wing Fung Chau.

Watermark and Maguire signed an acquisition loan with lender Signature Bank through the entity Signature Bank valued at $45.3 million for the development site at 6208 8th Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

The deal closed on January 10, 2023 and was recorded on January 12, 2023.The property has zero square feet of built space and 390,501 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 390,501 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price price per as of right buildable square foot is $116 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 price is less than half that if the 850,000 square feet is achieved.
The owner bought the property on November 23, 2022, for $4 million.

The signatory for Wolfe Landau was Wolfe Landau and Marvin Azrak. The signatory for Signature Bank was Kenneth A. Stagnari. Marvin Azrak is principal of the financing firm Maguire Capital Group, which acquired portions of the debt. Eli Dweck of the law firm Wachtel Missry represented the new owners in the complex transaction.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in two lawsuits and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The highest value suit was a $5.7 million money judgment concerning a loan filed on April 1, 2022, by Ling Xiang Xu against TU KANG YANG, WING FUNG CHAU, AIYUN CHAN, and XIU QIN SHI. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 113-unit, 62,600 square-foot R-2 building. The project was developed by Joel Werczberger with plans filed June 13, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 63 percent of the 389,700 square feet of built space are office buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space.

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