Scott Barone-affiliate pays $14M for office in Melrose

Developer Scott Barone as signatory through the entity 355 E 149th Street, LLC paid $14 million to Iris Nelson-Schwartz through the entity 355 East 149 St. Corp. for office building at 355 East 149th Street in Melrose, Bronx. The buyer entity was at care of a company called New City Realty Company, at an address that was not the same as Scott Barone’s company, Barone Management. A representative at Barone Management declined to comment, and it remained unclear if Barone Management was involved in this transaction.
The deal closed on April 8, 2022 and was recorded on April 20, 2022.

The property has 29,640 square feet of built space and 32,220 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 61,920 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $472 and the price per buildable square foot is $226 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 Iris Nelson-Schwartz was Iris Nelson-Schwartz. The signatory for New City Realty Company was Scott Barone. Scott Barone is the founder and principal of Barone Management.

Prior sales and revenue

The 29,640-square-foot property generated revenue of $1 million or $34 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 355 East 149th Street parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 180 feet deep with a total lot size of 18,000 square feet. The zoning is C4-4 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 3.44 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.1 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $100 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 Melrose, the majority, or 51 percent of the 9 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Melrose has the 36th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in Bronx with $10.7 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Melrose has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 164,342 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 one of the 13 commercial properties representing 6,140 square feet of the 234,466 square feet. The identified owner is 2861 3rd Av Bronx LLC. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 52 percent of the 234,466 square feet of built space are retail buildings, with office buildings next occupying 39 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that New City Realty Company owned at least one commercial property with 33,150 square feet and a city-determined market value of $6.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $27.7 million in debt, borrowed from Citibank. The portfolio consists of at least a single office property. It is located in Bronx.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 355 East 149th Street, Pincusco identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those four items, two were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were one permit applications with a total initial cost of $1.3 million and one initial temporary certificate of occupancy issuance for a project that initially costed $2.7 million. The most recent of these two items was the filing on April 27, 2021 for a 35,071-square-foot E building with zero residential units at 597 Courtlandt Avenue.
Of those four items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $35.2 million. The most recent of the two was New City Realty Company which borrowed $27.7 million from Citibank secured by the 33,150-square-foot, five-unit office building (O5) on 354 East 149th Street on August 24, 2021.

Correction: A prior version of this post included an incorrect image of the building.

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