Another one-time migrant shelter in Manhattan is changing hands.
Hawkins Way Capital purchased the property at 99 Washington Street in the Financial District for $154.5 million, the Commercial Observer reported. The 492-key hotel was sold by GF Hotels & Resorts, which took the property from Jubao Xie as receiver after a foreclosure filing in 2022, according to the New York Business Journal.
The deal breaks down to $314,000 per room. A $137 million debt on the property was transferred to Hawkins Way as part of the acquisition.
Plans for the property at the corner of Washington and Rector streets are unclear. In a statement, Hawkins Way partner Joshua Bird said the firm was looking forward to “strategically repositioning” the asset, which housed a migrant shelter until last month.
FCL Management is set to operate the repositioned property, which will include community dining areas, workspaces and a gym.
The sale of the hotel has been a long time coming.
The 50-story property — which was the tallest Holiday Inn in the world — was put up for sale in 2022, alongside the adjacent property containing St. George’s Tavern. Xie was seeking $187 million for the duo at the time.
But the hotel was already facing foreclosure by that time. Xie was delinquent on three loans attached to the property by August 2020, according to Trepp, and the growing pile of debt made it one of the most distressed hotels in the whole city.
Xie refinanced the property with a $137 million mortgage in September 2018. Ladder Capital provided the 10-year, non-recourse, interest-only, fixed-rate loan. Prior to that, Xie shopped the hotel with an asking price in excess of $300 million.
Xie developed the hotel alongside the prolific Sam Chang before taking control of the property in 2014. The IHG-operated hotel reportedly had an occupancy rate of 90 percent when the 2018 refinancing closed.
As the city’s need for migrant shelters shifts amid a declining number of arrivals, property owners are conceiving next plans for their buildings, from a return to hotel status to con. This month, Yellowstone Real Estate Investments filed plans to convert the 600-key, one-time migrant shelter at 440 West 57th Street into a 249-unit apartment building.
At this time last month, there were roughly 86,000 homeless individuals and asylum seekers in the city. It costs $352 per night to house someone in an emergency shelter, according to city officials.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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