BEB Capital pays $31M to Benchmark for 33-unit walkup in Greenwich Village

BEB Capital through the entity M&M Bedford, LLC paid $31 million to Benchmark Real Estate Group through the entity 35 Bedford Lp for the midblock 33-unit residential walkup building at 35 Bedford Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
The deal closed on March 30, 2022 and was recorded on April 7, 2022.

The property has 17,556 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,765 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 January 24, 2019, for $21 million. The signatory for Benchmark Real Estate Group was Jordan Vogel. Traded NY reported the brokers of the deal were Bobby Carrozzo, Robert Burton and Michael Gembecki of Cushman & Wakefield.

BEB Capital has filed several large projects recently, for example in October 19, filed a permit application for construction of a 425-unit, 397,252-square-foot mixed-use building at 1065 Atlantic Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. To see other BEB Capital activity, click here.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer BEB Capital purchased four properties in two transactions for a total of $60 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Benchmark Real Estate Group purchased four properties in four transactions for a total of $71.9 million and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $37.8 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Jordan Vogel, head officer and Aaron Feldman, officer. The business entities are Benchmark Real Estate and 35 Bedford Lp. The 17,556-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.2 million or $67 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 35 Bedford Street parcel has frontage of 45 feet and is 92 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,166 square feet. The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension II. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.8 million.The most recent loan totaled $13.1 million and was provided by New York Community Bank on April 1, 2021.

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 $380 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 Greenwich Village, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 34 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Greenwich Village has the 10th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.3 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Greenwich Village has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 445,850 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 1 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 27 commercial properties representing 91,224 square feet of the 250,827 square feet. The largest owner is Robert Cohen, followed by Sabet Group and then Benchmark Real Estate Group. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 26 percent of the 461,262 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Benchmark Real Estate Group owned at least nine commercial properties with 237,611 square feet and a city-determined market value of $94.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $130.3 million in debt, with top three lenders as Signature Bank, MetLife, and New York Community Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 74 percent of the 237,611 square feet of built space are residential elevator properties, with residential walkup properties next occupying 19 percent of the space. The bulk, or 74 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 26 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that BEB Capital owned at least 12 commercial properties with 134,111 square feet. The portfolio has more than $71.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as Signature Bank, HSBC Bank, and Bank Leumi respectively. The properties are in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 35 Bedford Street, Pincusco identified 12 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those 12 items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit application filed on May 6, 2021 for the $1.5 million renovation of 14,396-square-foot R-2 building with 10 residential units at 51 Downing Street.
Of those 12 items, four were sales above $5 million totaling $43.2 million. The most recent of the four was Penn South Capital which bought the 12,690-square-foot, 20-unit rental (D6) on 76 Carmine Street for $8.5 million from Musano family on March 9, 2022.
Of those 12 items, seven were loans above $5 million totaling $71.3 million. The most recent of the seven was Penn South Capital which borrowed $19.5 million from Benefit Street Partners secured by the 12,690-square-foot, 20-unit rental (D6) on 76 Carmine Street and two other properties on March 9, 2022.

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