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The debt backed by an iconic Hell’s Kitchen building has changed hands, potentially clearing the path for a new owner.
Yellowstone Real Estate Investments, a private equity firm with a focus on opportunistic investing, acquired the loan on the New Yorker Hotel, located at 481 Eighth Ave., valued at $106M, Commercial Observer reports.
The loan-to-value ratio for the senior mortgage was 43% for the 1.1M SF art deco building — containing a Wyndham-branded, 1,000-key hotel, 140K SF of student housing, 110K SF of office space and 16K SF of retail space.
The landmarked property’s former lender, M&T Bank, has been shopping around for a buyer for the loan since mid-July, having initially issued the debt in 2016, CO reported. The loan’s exact purchase price wasn’t disclosed, but the loan traded at “close to par,” a source told the publication.
The note was due to mature three months from the time that M&T began marketing the loan and remains due in October. Final bids were due Aug. 10, with Newmark’s Adam Spies, Steven Schultz, Adam Etra, Adam Doneger and Doug Harmon reportedly marketing the sale.
Yellowstone didn't respond to Bisnow’s requests for comment, while M&T and Newmark declined to comment to Bisnow.
The New Yorker Hotel opened in 1930 as the largest inn in the world and was purchased by the Unification Church — a religious group founded by Korean-born Sun Myung Moon, who declared himself the second coming of the Messiah — in 1976 for $5M.
The church began renovations costing roughly $30M on the hotel in 2013, with the hotel adopting the Wyndham branding in 2014.
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