Two years after the owners of luxury Midtown West hotel The Chatwal defaulted on a mezzanine loan, the 76-key property has changed hands.
Ben-Josef Group Holdings is the new owner of the ground lease controlling the hotel at 130 W. 44th St. after buying it for $53.2M, PincusCo reported.
Two years after its owner landed in hot water over a mezzanine loan, the Chatwal Hotel at 130 W. 44th St. has new ownership.
The 120-year-old property is part of the Unbound Collection by Hyatt and was sold by a shell company linked to Adams Hotels International.
Adams Hotels ran into trouble in December 2023 when it missed a repayment deadline for a $62.5M mezzanine loan by the Reuben Brothers’ Motcomb Estates, Bloomberg reported at the time.
The British billionaire brothers moved to foreclose on the property, with an auction scheduled for January last year. The loan’s unpaid balance was predicted to grow to as much as $79M in value by the time the auction rolled around because of its high interest rates.
Iyer Vaidyanathan Narayan, a Dubai businessman, was listed as the loan’s guarantor in the preforeclosure suit. Narayan had owned the property since 2013, when he paid $115.2M for the ground lease, PincusCo reported.
But at the time Reuben Brothers brought the foreclosure suit, Nayaran was also a defendant in a 2022 lawsuit brought by Astra Global in the New York State Supreme Court, PincusCo previously reported.
Astra alleged that Narayan had used fraudulent funds for his 2013 purchase of the hotel. However, Narayan died in February 2024, and now his estate has transferred the property to Ben-Josef, according to court filings.
TOP SALES
The Gindi family’s ASG Equities has sold a mixed-use Brooklyn building that used to make up part of the Bay Ridge Century 21 department store for $28M, Commercial Observer reported. The 189K SF property at 423 88th St. has 124K SF of parking across six stories and 63K SF of office space. ASG also two months ago sold a nearby building that held the rest of the original Century 21 in the neighborhood. The buyer in the latest deal was the Abed family, which was represented by Specialized Realty Group’s Michael Feratovic. The seller was repped by JLL’s Ethan Stanton, Jeffrey Julien, Brendan Maddigan and Michael Mazzara.
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Allied Realty & Development has sold an 11-story building in NoMad for $24M, PincusCo reported. The 1900-built, 27K SF property at 1181 Broadway is largely office, with the exception of 2K SF of retail, Commercial Observer reported. The buyer was Alf Naiman Real Estate.
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CSC Real Estate has acquired 75 Maiden Lane, a 12-story Financial District office building that is 99% leased, for $40.2M from family-run real estate company A.M. Properties, Crain’s New York Business reported. The building, which spans 172K SF and sits between Gold and William streets, has asking rents between $34 and $42 per SF.
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Global Asset Properties acquired an office condo and a retail condo at 1035 Third Ave. for $22M, PincusCo reported. The seller of the Lenox Hill property was Acadia Realty Trust. The building has three commercial condo units in total plus 113 residential condo units, but neither the commercial garage nor the residential units were part of the transaction. The deal follows another recent sale for Acadia, which offloaded a nine-story, 41K SF mixed-use building at 640 Broadway to a German investor last month for $49.5M.
TOP LEASES
The Lipstick Building at 885 Third Ave., where law firm Fox Horan & Camerini LLP took 19K SF of office space this week.
Law firm Fox Horan & Camerini LLP is moving to 19K SF at SL Green’s 885 Third Ave., known as the Lipstick Building. The law firm signed an 11-year lease to move to the 34-story, 600K SF office tower. Newmark’s Chris Mongeluzo and Corey Borg represented the tenant. Steven Durels represented the tenant in-house.
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Plaza College is expanding in Muss Development’s 17-story Forest Hills office building at 118-33 Queens Blvd. The private college, which has been a tenant since 2013, took 21K SF on the sixth floor in addition to its existing space on the first three floors. The deal takes the college’s entire footprint in the 375K SF building to 80K SF, bringing the property to 99% occupied. Plaza College is expected to move into its new space once its build-out is complete, estimated to be at the end of the first quarter. CBRE’s Roy Chipkin represented the tenant.
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Quality Services for the Autism Community has signed a 42K SF lease at 222-25 Jamaica Ave., a newly constructed, three-story building spanning 72K SF. The mission-driven company will use the office, parking and outdoor space, according to a release. Landlord Palwinder Singh was represented by Colliers’ Joshua Kleinberg, Daniel Mundle, Lars Remole and Samuel Essery, while QSAC was represented by CBRE’s Roy Chipkin.
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Industrious is taking over the entire 33K SF office space at 190 Bowery. The 1898-built, graffiti-covered building often has queues around the corner for shoppers waiting to enter the Supreme store on its ground floor. Asking rents were $95 per SF. AJ Camhi, Paul Milunec and Rob Weller repped landlord RFR in-house with help from JLL’s Clark Finney, Alex Riguardi, Jake Bargas and Dana Goldman. Natalie Levine and Kylie VanBuren represented CBRE-owned Industrious in-house.
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Extend Fertility has expanded its space at the Feil Organization’s 200 W. 57th St. by 3K SF, bringing its total footprint to 15K SF for a 15-year lease. The landlord of the 16-story office building by Carnegie Hall was represented in-house by Andrew Wiener and Kevin Driscoll. Cushman & Wakefield’s John Fitzsimons represented the tenant.
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Taiwanese restaurant Din Tai Fung is set to open a new spot in Downtown Brooklyn after signing a 20K SF lease at 567 Fulton St. Known as The Brook, the 591-unit luxury rental building was developed by Witkoff Group and Apollo Global Management. The restaurant is set to open on the ground floor in 2027, joining its 165 locations worldwide and its 18 North American locations. Goodspace’s Chris DeCrosta represented the landlord, while Newmark’s Ben Birnbaum represented the tenant.
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Teneo Holdings renewed its 47K SF lease for 10 years at 280 Park Ave., landlord SL Green announced last week. The global consulting firm was represented by CBRE’s Matthew McBride and has been in the building since 2016, Commercial Observer reported. Other tenants include hedge fund Elliott Investment Management and private equity firm Antares Capital. Asking rents in Teneo’s deal were $120 per SF, with the landlord representing itself in-house.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
A rendering of One45 in Harlem, where the wheels are finally in motion again for the construction of a 1,000-unit housing development.
One45, a high-profile Harlem housing project caught up in years of political turmoil, has scored a bridge loan to refinance existing debt, Commercial Observer reported. Hanover Capital NY provided $26M to developer Bruce Teitelbaum and Coltown Properties’ Steven Neuman to refinance a $20M mortgage from ConnectOne Bank issued in 2021, PincusCo previously reported. The new financing for the 1,000-unit project was arranged by Filler Capital’s Isaac Filler, Steven Edelstein and Yossi Koschitzki.
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Taconic Partners notched a $130M loan for 817 Broadway, a 14-story office building near Union Square, The Real Deal reported. Ares Asset Management originated a $91M senior loan, while GreenBarn Investment Group and Sabal Investment Holdings provided a $37.5M mezzanine loan. Taconic and Nuveen, which partnered to buy the property in 2016 for $109M and finished a $40M redevelopment in summer 2019, put the 139K SF building on the market earlier this year hoping for a recapitalization, per TRD. The building is 99% leased, with tenants including Unity Technologies and Union Square Ventures. A Newmark team of Adam Spies and Adam Doneger arranged the financing.
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Legion Investment Group netted a $155M construction loan from Eldridge for a 34-unit condo project in Chelsea, PincusCo reported. The building at 550 W. 21st St. was previously encumbered by a $55.8M loan from Deutsche Bank. Legion bought the property out of bankruptcy for $87.4M last year from Casco Development.
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KeyBank has provided a $90M refinancing loan to Bogopa Enterprises for a 233-unit mixed-use building at 1100 Myrtle Ave., PincusCo reported. The loan replaces an $80M sum that Bogopa lent itself for the Bedford-Stuyvesant property.
CORRECTION, OCT. 22, 10:30 A.M. ET: A previous version of this story misstated the sale price of the Chatwal hotel. This story has been updated.
