Storage Post pays $64M to Wildflower, Prudential for storage in Morrisania

The Atlanta-based self storage company Storage Post through the entity Storage Post/3350 Park Ave, LLC paid $64 million to Wildflower Ltd. and Prudential Financial through the entity Pr III/Md 165 Storage, LLC for the industrial building at 3350 Park Avenue in Morrisania, Bronx and corner industrial parcel at East 166th Street in Morrisania, Bronx.
The deal closed on March 1, 2022 and was recorded on March 7, 2022.The two properties have 138,600 square feet of built space and 21,500 square feet of additional air rights according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $461 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 Wildflower Ltd. and Prudential Financial was Lynn DeCastro. The signatory for Storage Post was William A. Palmer III. Storage Post owns at least 11 properties in New York City, according to a PincusCo analysis, with nearly all of those acquired in 2012 from Acadia Realty Trust. Storage Post is headquartered in Atlanta. Storage Post’s last acquisition was a ground leasehold from Acadia in 2015 valued at $25 million.

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 3350 Park Avenue.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has no record that the buyer Storage Post had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Wildflower Ltd. purchased 15 properties in eight transactions for a total of $75.9 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The 3350 Park Avenue parcel has frontage of 215 feet and is 416 feet deep with a total lot size of 69,407 square feet. The lot is irregular. 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 $19.6 million.The most recent loan totaled $25.4 million and was provided by Santander Bank on 15-Apr-21.

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 $6,200 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot buildings, one out of the four buildings received an initial certificate of occupancy in the last ten years. 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 Morrisania, the bulk, or 47 percent of the 29.3 million square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space. In sales, Morrisania has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $64.9 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Morrisania has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 767,412 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 3350 Park Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 13 commercial properties representing 245,962 square feet of the 402,079 square feet. The largest owner is Wildflower LTD, followed by Johnson Development Associates and then Rami Esses. There is one active new building construction project totaling 15,209 square feet. It is a 16-unit, 15,209-square-foot R-2 building developed by Alan Waintraub with plans filed February 23, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 70 percent of the 404,599 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 3350 Park Avenue, Pincusco identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those five items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on February 23, 2022 for a 13,737-square-foot R-2 building with 16 residential units at 451 East 165th Street.
Of those five items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $20.3 million. The most recent of the two was Alan Wal which bought the 12,337-square-foot, one-unit industrial (G1) on 1049 Washington Avenue and two other properties for $6.3 million from Joseph Fulda on January 31, 2022.
Of those five items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $27.1 million. The most recent of the two was Westrock Development which borrowed $6 million from Webster Bank secured by the 3,750-square-foot, one-unit industrial (E9) on 432 East 165th Street and six other properties on October 1, 2020.

Direct link to Acris document. link