Yeshivah of Flatbush in contract to pay $5.65M for approximately 100-year-old synagogue

An expanding modern Jewish school in Midwood with a significant population from the Brooklyn Syrian community is in contract to pay $5.65 million to an Orthodox synagogue with a declining attendance in the neighborhood. The Yeshivah of Flatbush, which owns most of the buildings on the northern portion of the city block, expects to close on the purchase of 1012 Avenue I, at the corner of Coney Island Avenue, by the middle of September. The seller is the Young Israel Talmud Torah of Flatbush.

The 15,000-square-foot building was constructed in approximately 1925 to 1929, according to a 2009 application to the National Register of Historic Places.

The contract of sale was disclosed in a document signed by the office of the New York State Attorney General approving the sale, a requirement for the sale of significant assets owned by nonprofit or religious groups. 1021 Avenue I Yeshivah of Flatbush pdf

The parties completed the sale with no brokers, according to the document.

The spiritual leader of the synagogue, Rabbi Kenneth Auman, said in a 2021 interview with Jewish Vues, that the congregation has been declining over the past several years. Young Israel Talmud Torah of Flatbush is an Ashkenazic congregation, while the Syrian community is Sephardic.

“It has been dropping, steadily decreasing over the years. Unfortunately, older people pass away, people move out to the Five Towns, some of the members’ children are in the Five Towns, Bergen County, or Westchester Country. This is not only in the Modern Orthodox world; people in the Yeshivish world are moving to Lakewood. The only group that’s staying fully strong in Brooklyn, especially in my area, is the Syrian community, as far as I can tell.”

The property

The property in Midwood has 15,000 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 60 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,999 square feet. The zoning is R5 which allows for up to 1.25 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.9 million.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial renovation certificate of occupancy on January 15, 2021.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

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

The neighborhood

In Midwood, The majority, or 53 percent of the 19.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Midwood has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $231.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 27th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Midwood has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 27th highest in Brooklyn. It had 370,216 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 three of the 14 commercial properties representing 182,641 square feet of the 300,361 square feet. The two identified owners are Frey Management and Yeshivah Of Flatbush. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 1024 Avenue I, PincusCo identified two commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those two items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $44.2 million. The most recent of the two was Equity Resource Investments in which borrowed $9.7 million from Extra Space Storage Inc. secured by the 51,869-square-foot, one-unit industrial (E7) on 1249 Coney Island Avenue on July 15, 2024.

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