EMP Capital pays $14M for Crown Heights properties, has 69-unit project on same block

EMP Capital Group through the entity Emp Atlantic Lp paid $14 million to Cheung Ming Lee through the entity Gold Star “A” Realty Inc. for midblock industrial building at 1035 Pacific Street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and midblock industrial building at 1034-1042 Atlantic Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on March 9, 2022 and was recorded on April 12, 2022. EMP is developing a 69-unit residential building on the same block.

The two properties have 27,915 square feet of built space and 8,040 square feet of additional air rights according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $501 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 signatory for Cheung Ming Lee was Cheung Ming Lee. The signatory for EMP Capital Group was Elichai “Elie” M. Pariente. 

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 1035 Pacific Street.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer EMP Capital Group purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $17 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Cheung Ming Lee had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The 1035 Pacific Street parcel has frontage of 60 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 12,000 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 $1.6 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The properties were not involved in any lawsuits or bankruptcies in the past years. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received $655 in ECB penalties and $655 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 Crown Heights, the bulk, or 27 percent of the 66.4 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space. In sales, Crown Heights has 1.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $336.3 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 11th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Crown Heights has 1.7 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 12th highest in Brooklyn. It had 1.6 million 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 the tax block of 1035 Pacific Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 24 commercial properties representing 77,550 square feet of the 176,173 square feet. The largest owner is CubeSmart, followed by Rachel Surizon and then Abraham Gottlieb. There are three active new building construction projects totaling 67,249 square feet. The largest is a 69-unit, 55,957-square-foot R-2 building developed by Elie Pariente with plans filed December 1, 2020 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a one-unit, 8,144-square-foot F-2 building developed by Joseph Gardella with plans filed December 29, 2014 and it has not been permitted yet.

the majority, or 55 percent of the 198,373 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that EMP Capital Group owned at least one commercial property with 18,409 square feet and a city-determined market value of $14.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $14 million in debt, borrowed from Ready Capital. The portfolio consists of at least a single residential elevator property. It is located in Manhattan.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 1035 Pacific Street, Pincusco identified nine commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those nine items, two were in new building development. There were one new building permit application and one new building permit. The most recent of these two items was a permit on August 13, 2021 for a 118,994-square-foot R-2 building with 175 residential units at 1010 Pacific St.
Of those nine items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $42.3 million. The most recent of the two was Prospect Affordable Package LLC which bought the 6,500-square-foot, eight-unit rental (C1) on 1063 Pacific Street and 13 other properties for $22.1 million from All Year Management on July 27, 2021.
Of those nine items, five were loans above $5 million totaling $135.7 million. The most recent of the five was Black Spruce Management which borrowed $21 million from Sterling National Bank secured by the 6,500-square-foot, eight-unit rental (C1) on 1063 Pacific Street and 13 other properties on November 12, 2021.

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