Anonymous lender takes title to Princeton Club with $43.4M judgment

The 15 West 43rd Street LLC with anonymous ownership took title of the Princeton Club hotel (H5) building at 15 West 43rd Street in Midtown West, Manhattan, through a public foreclosure auction held in September in which it won with a credit bid. The total judgment was $43.4 million.
The deal closed on November 21, 2023 and was recorded on December 1, 2023. The property has 63,860 square feet of built space and 32,912 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 96,800 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.
The signatory for Princeton Club was Thomas R. Kleinberger. The signatory for 15 West 43rd Street LLC was Kelly Zelezen. The contract date was November 21, 2023. The former note holder won the property in an auction. The identity of the buyer could not be determined through the court or property records. The lender filed a pre-foreclosure on the Princeton Club in 2022, with index number 850118/2022.
The total judgment lien as of July 2023 was $43.4 million. The buyer is in care of the law firm Kleinberg Kaplan, and other law firms. The transfer price was $8 million but the buyer won it on its credit bid. The auction was September 6, 2023.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Princeton Club had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Tom Bailey, head officer and Jason Pallen, officer. The business entity is Princeton Club Of New York.

The property

The hotel building in Midtown West has 63,860 square feet of built space and 32,912 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 96,800 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 96 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,680 square feet. The zoning is C6-4.5 which allows for up to 12 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $17.9 million. The most recent loan totaled 0.0 and was provided by 15 West 43rd Street LLC on December 14, 2021.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $35.8 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan filed on June 7, 2022, by 15 West 43rd Street LLC against Princeton Club of New York. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received five DOB violations, $6,250 in ECB penalties, and $6,250 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

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 Midtown West, The majority, or 75 percent of the 75.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown West has the 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.3 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 19.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 25 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other hotel buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 10 commercial properties representing 455,504 square feet of the 1,234,508 square feet. The largest owner is Rabina Properties, followed by Princeton Club and then MCR Development.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 523,188 square feet. It is a 98-unit, 523,188 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Rabina and filed by Ian Klein with plans filed January 4, 2021 and permitted September 1, 2022.

The majority, or 77 percent of the 1.2 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Princeton Club owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 63,860 square feet and a city-determined market value of $17.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single hotel property. It is located in Manhattan.

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