Columbia Pacific acquires 67% stake valued at $76.4M in Empire Management hotel in NoMad

Columbia Pacific Advisors through the entity CP 5th Ave Member, LLC acquired a 66.8 percent interest from Fred Ohebshalom’s Empire Management through the entity Cosmic Tfah Member LLC valued at $76.4 million in The Fifth Avenue Hotel at 250 Fifth Avenue in NoMad, Manhattan.
The deal closed on February 5, 2025 and was recorded on February 12, 2025.
This is an entity level purchase. Empire Management was facing foreclosure by Madison Realty Capital, as PincusCo reported last year. The Real Deal reported this month that KSL Capital and Columbia Pacific provided a loan.
Simultaneously with the sale transaction, Columbia Pacific and Empire Management obtained a $90 million loan, with the lender identified as FS Investments.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Columbia Pacific Advisors purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $11.9 million and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $9.6 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Empire Management had not purchased any other properties and sold three properties in three transactions for a total of $31.3 million over the same time period.

Violations and lawsuits

The properties were involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $81.5 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan filed on August 15, 2024, by Madison Realty Capital against Empire Management and Fred Ohebshalom. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have not received any significant violations 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 block

On the tax block of 250 Fifth Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 36 commercial properties representing 632,303 square feet of the 976,387 square feet. The largest owner is Sol Goldman Investments, followed by Joginder Sharma and then Devli Real Estate.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 398,940 square feet. The largest is a 266-unit, 226,649 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Flag Luxury Group and filed by Richard Murphy with plans filed January 20, 2016 and permitted April 23, 2018. The second largest is a 41-unit, 172,291 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Boris Kuzinez and filed by Yoram Barel with plans filed September 23, 2016 and permitted April 18, 2024.

The majority, or 56 percent of the 976,387 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with office buildings next occupying 26 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Empire Management owned at least 25 commercial properties with 1,107 residential units in New York City with 1,303,383 square feet and a city-determined market value of $256 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $336.2 million in debt, with top three lenders as Barclays, Santander Bank, and New York Community Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 83 percent of the 1,303,383 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with H1 properties next occupying 10 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

The buyer

Direct link to Acris document. link

Share this article