Argent Ventures sells minority stake in Crowne Plaza hotel building in Times Square for $53.3M

The entity EGL 1605 Owner LLC paid $53.3 million through a 15.91 percent partial interest to Argent Ventures through the entity 1601 Broadway Owner LLC for the Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan hotel building (H1) at 1601 Broadway in Times Square, Manhattan.
The deal closed on July 23, 2024 and was recorded on August 15, 2024. The property has 843,131 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.
The signatory for Argent Ventures was Andrew S. Penson. The signatory for Egl 1605 Owner LLC was Michael Loeb. The contract date was July 23, 2024. This is a 15.91%, Argent Ventures retains the other 84.09%.
The most recent loan totaled $212 million and was provided by H&R REIT on April 17, 2024.

The property

The hotel building in Midtown West has 843,131 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 203 feet and is 194 feet deep with a total lot size of 35,275 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C6-7T which allows for up to 14 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $186.8 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and one bankruptcy over the past two years. The suit was a $1 million money judgment concerning a retail lease filed on January 6, 2023, by Hersel Torkian and Torkian Group against Argent Ventures and Vornado Realty Trust. The bankruptcy was filed on December 28, 2022, by Argent Ventures, Vornado Realty Trust, Theatine Partners, and Richard J. Shinder citing assets of $418.8 million. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $1,250 in ECB penalties and $13,830 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on August 20, 2012. On the lot, there are two active new building construction projects and major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million, totaling 1,011 square feet. The largest, 123548054, is a major alteration project for a 795-unit, 843,131 square-foot R-1 building submitted by Carlos Lopez with plans filed November 29, 2018 and permitted December 12, 2018. The second largest, 122951724, is a major alteration project for a 25,970 square-foot B building submitted by Carlos Lopez with plans filed November 23, 2016 and permitted December 3, 2019.

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 3rd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.9 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 29.5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 39 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 five of the 11 commercial properties representing 1,459,816 square feet of the 1,578,897 square feet. The largest owner is Argent Ventures, followed by Stonehenge NYC and then Dream Hotel Group.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling zero square feet. It is a 136-unit residential (R-2) building submitted by Rex Hakimian with plans filed January 12, 2022 and permitted May 31, 2022.

The majority, or 61 percent of the 1.6 million square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Argent Ventures owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 843,131 square feet and a city-determined market value of $186.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $212 million in debt, borrowed from H&R REIT. The portfolio consists of at least a single hotel property. It is located in Manhattan.

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