Avrohom Prager flips 10-unit walkup in Turtle Bay for $6M, bought for $4.5M in February

Katherine Cartagena through the entity Midtown 51st LLC paid $6 million to Avrohom Prager through the entity 311 East 51 LLC for the midblock eight-unit residential walkup building at 311 East 51st Street in Turtle Bay, Manhattan.
The deal closed on April 8, 2022 and was recorded on April 15, 2022.

The property has 5,760 square feet of built space and 1,770 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 7,532 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,041 and the price per buildable square foot is $796 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 seller bought the property on February 4, 2022, for $4.5 million. The signatory for Avrohom Prager was Avrohom Prager. The signatory for Katherine Cartagena was Katherine Cartagena.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has no record that the buyer Katherine Cartagena had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Avrohom Prager purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $10.5 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 5,760-square-foot property generated revenue of $248,544 or $43 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 311 East 51st Street parcel has frontage of 18 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 1,883 square feet. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.6 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was not involved in any lawsuits or bankruptcies in the past years. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $150 in OATH penalties 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 Turtle Bay, the majority, or 52 percent of the 13.5 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space. In sales, Turtle Bay has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $101.3 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Turtle Bay has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 26,950 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 0.20 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 21 commercial properties representing 123,065 square feet of the 449,054 square feet. The largest owner is Stellar Management, followed by Avrohom Prager and then Sky Management. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

the majority, or 71 percent of the 491,150 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Avrohom Prager owned at least two commercial properties with 7,999 square feet and a city-determined market value of $10.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $6 million in debt, borrowed from Cross County Savings Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 72 percent of the 7,999 square feet of built space are residential walkup properties, with 1-4 family properties next occupying 28 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 311 East 51st Street, PincusCo identified seven commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those seven items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on October 22, 2021 for a 117,895-square-foot R-2 building with 114 residential units at 300 East 50th Street.
Of those seven items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit application filed on June 3, 2021 for the $1.1 million renovation of 8,170-square-foot R-2 building with 10 residential units at 304 East 52nd Street.
One of those seven items was a sale which Stonehenge NYC bought the 88,658-square-foot, 116-unit rental (D3) on 340 East 51st Street for $66.2 million from the London family on February 27, 2020.
Of those seven items, four were loans above $5 million totaling $99.2 million. The most recent of the four was Stonehenge NYC which borrowed $23.6 million from Heitman LLC secured by the 88,658-square-foot, 116-unit rental (D3) on 340 East 51st Street on February 27, 2020.

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