Chetrits Fall Behind On $330M Debt Tied To Manhattan Landmark
More dominoes are falling for Meyer Chetrit.
The developer may be forced to give up on another building, this time at 26 Broadway. The $290M CMBS loan backed by the landmark Financial District office tower has transferred to special servicing after its owner said that he wouldn't be able to continue making loan payments, according to Morningstar Credit.
Since being valued at $425M as of late 2021, the building has steadily lost tenants while operating expenses have exploded. Net cash flow is down roughly 30% from underwritten levels, and the building's debt service coverage ratio has fallen to 0.76x, below breakeven levels.
Starwood Mortgage Capital and the Bank of Montreal provided the financing, according to property records filed in February 2022. The building is also tied to a $40M unsecuritized mezzanine loan.
Meyer Chetrit is listed as the loan’s sponsor on Morningstar's database, alongside his brother Jacob Chetrit, who died last year. Jacob Chetrit was the signatory on the mortgages in city property records.
Meyer Chetrit and representatives for Starwood and BMO didn’t immediately respond to Bisnow’s requests for comment.
The 29-story, 840K SF office building was 75% occupied as of the end of March, down from 83% when the debt was underwritten in 2021, according to Morningstar.
Meanwhile, property insurance costs are up approximately 65%, utilities increased 79%, and repairs and maintenance jumped 108%.
The property is already subject to a cash sweep, and a cash management account has been set up, according to servicer commentary.
The 29-story tower, which is adjacent to Lower Manhattan’s Bowling Green park, is known as the Standard Oil Building. The headquarters was built for John D. Rockefeller's oil company in 1885 and later expanded in 1928. Alexander Hamilton lived in a house on the lot after resigning as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury.
The Chetrits purchased the building, which was bound by a ground lease, for $225M in 2007. In 2010, shortly before the family firm split, the brothers acquired the underlying land for $35M.
In the wake of Jacob Chetrit’s death, the Chetrit Group, led by Meyer and Joseph Chetrit, has been on a downward spiral. The drama began to unfold around March 2025, when Wells Fargo sued JPMorgan Chase over allegations that a $481M loan tied to a large Chetrit portfolio had been overinflated.
Since then, the brothers have been indicted over tenant harassment claims and sued by the city for a plethora of violations and hazardous conditions at the Hotel Carter in Times Square. In addition to financial losses, they could face prison time.
They have been forced to shed pieces of their portfolio due to foreclosure. That includes Brooklyn's Hotel Bossert and the Tides Hotel in Miami Beach. Other projects, like their 6-acre River District development in Miami, have been sold off.
The other side of the real estate dynasty, known as the Chetrit Organization, has similarly stumbled following Jacob Chetrit’s death. Juda Chetrit, another of Meyer Chetrit's brothers, and Jacob Chetrit's son Michael Chetrit have sought to work out troubled loans while also being forced to relinquish properties such as 1 Whitehall St.
