AJU Continuum signs $90M refi with Hanmi Bank for two Manhattan hotels

AJU Continuum through the entity Blue 31st Street NYC LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Hanmi Bank valued at $90 million for two hotels including the hotel (H3) at 52-56 West 36th Street in the Garment District, and the hotel (H2) at 30 West 31st Street in Penn Plaza, Manhattan. AJU Continuum was formerly known as AJU Hotel and Resort.
The deal closed on September 11, 2024 and was recorded on October 1, 2024. The prior lender was Shinhan Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $88 million.
The two properties have 139,270 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $646 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 AJU Continuum was Jaisun Ihm.

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 52-56 West 36th Street.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Yoonwhe Moon, head officer and Richard Lee, agent. The business entity is Blue 36th Street Nyc Llc.

The property

The hotel building in Garment District has 139,270 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 60 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,925 square feet. The zoning is M1-6 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $29.7 million. The most recent loan totaled $88 million and was provided by Shinhan Bank on September 16, 2022.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received two DOB violations and $1,125 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot buildings, two out of the two buildings received a 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 $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Garment District, The majority, or 69 percent of the 52.3 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 13 percent of the space. In sales, Garment District has 2.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $555.8 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 15th highest in Manhattan. For development, Garment District is the 5th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 7.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 14 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 52-56 West 36th Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of 16 of the 33 commercial properties representing 900,219 square feet of the 1,436,912 square feet. The largest owner is Dong Yin Development (Holdings) Limited, followed by Jeremy Schwalbe and then AJU Continuum.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 44 percent of the 1.4 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 43 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that AJU Continuum owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 139,270 square feet and a city-determined market value of $46.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, all identified are hotel properties. They are all located in Manhattan.

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