Well-known contemporary artist Takashi Murakami pays $4.6M for industrial in Williamsburg

The prominent Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami through the entity Kaikai Kiki New York, LLC paid $4.6 million to Baudin Canka through the entity Canka Corp. for the industrial building (F5) at 50 Morgan Avenue in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn and industrial building (F4) at 47 Grattan Street in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on June 17, 2022 and was recorded on July 6, 2022.The two properties have 8,250 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $560 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.)

Kaikai Kiki New York is an arts organization, with a location in Long Island City. Takashi Murakami is a well-established visual artist who mixes contemporary imagary with ancient painting and woodcut techniques. Murakami founded Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd., through which he manages artists and where he shows his own work. Murakami was the signatory for the buyer entity.

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 50 Morgan Avenue.

The property

The 50 Morgan Avenue parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,000 square feet. The zoning is M1-1 which allows for up to 1 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $710,000.
The 47 Grattan Street parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,500 square feet. The zoning is M1-1 which allows for up to 1 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $629,000.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties since September of 2020. 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 East Williamsburg, the majority, or 62 percent of the 16.6 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 10 percent of the space. In sales, East Williamsburg has 1.4 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $454.3 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 9th highest in Brooklyn. For development, East Williamsburg has 1.4 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 15th highest in Brooklyn. It had 1.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 8 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 50 Morgan Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the 14 commercial properties representing 4,125 square feet of the 35,129 square feet. The identified owner is Isaac Schwartz. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 42 percent of the 35,129 square feet of built space are office buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 39 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 50 Morgan Avenue, Pincusco identified two commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
One of those two items was a sale which St. Nicks Alliance bought the 4,125-square-foot development site (V1) on 88 Morgan Avenue and 10 other properties for $5.3 million from National Equity Fund on January 6, 2021.
One of those two items was a loan which Robert Rothbort borrowed $12.5 million from Popular Bank secured by the 31,134-square-foot, one-unit industrial (E1) on 10 Harrison Place on January 14, 2022.

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