Ben-Josef Group Holdings pays $53.2M for hotel in Midtown West

Ben-Josef Group Holdings through the entity 130 W44 Hotel Propco Development LLC paid $53.2 million to Adams Hotels International LLC for the ground lease controlling the hotel building (H1) at 130 West 44th Street in Midtown West, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on October 10, 2025 and was recorded on October 17, 2025. The property has 75,421 square feet of built space and 1,148 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 76,560 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $705 and the price per buildable square foot is $695 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 the assets of the late Iyer Vaidyanathan Narayan was Leonard Sebastian. The signatory for Ben-Josef Group Holdings was Ron Ben-Josef . Iyer Vaidyanathan Narayan bought the lease for $115,216,688 in July 2013. Iyer Vaidyanathan Narayan died February 23, 2024, according to court filing in a foreclosure case 652950/2022 debt holder Reuben Brothers brought.  this is the Lambs Club Building The fee is owned by Metro District Church of the Nazarene, which signed a 99-year ground lease in 1999.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Ben-Josef Group Holdings purchased three properties in three transactions for a total of $67.7 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Iyer Vaidyanathan Narayan had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 75,421-square-foot property generated revenue of $18.9 million or $250 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The hotel building in Midtown West has 75,421 square feet of built space and 1,148 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 76,560 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 76 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,656 square feet. The zoning is C6-5.5 which allows for up to 12 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial The property is in the Individual Landmark. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $35.6 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on August 29, 2012. 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 3rd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.6 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the 2nd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 39.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 52 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 10 of the 14 commercial properties representing 1,795,047 square feet of the 2,068,863 square feet. The largest owner is Durst Organization, followed by Tamares Group and then Moinian Group.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 74 percent of the 2.1 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Ben-Josef Group Holdings owned at least six commercial properties with 146 residential units in New York City with 279,897 square feet and a city-determined market value of $83.2 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $119.2 million in debt, borrowed from Bank of America and Ben-Josef Group Holdings. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 62 percent of the 279,897 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 34 percent of the space. The bulk, or 64 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 36 percent of the space.

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