CUNY acquires dorm rooms valued at $125.6M from Hawkins Way Capital in Midtown East hotel

The City University of New York acquired long-term control of approximately 235 hotel rooms valued at $125.6 million from Hawkins Way Capital through the entity 569 Lexington Leasehold LLC for six floors at 569 Lexington Avenue in Midtown East, Manhattan. The expected use is owner-occupied.
The deal closed on August 15, 2025 and was recorded on August 15, 2025.
The signatory for Hawkins Way Capital was Karan Suri . The signatory for City University of New York was Derek Davis.

In this transaction, the City University of New York purchased six condominium units each representing a floor, which have a total of 235 rooms in the hotel portion of 569 Lexington Avenue from Hawkins Way Capital. This is a structured lease. This is the second deal in the building. In April the parties recorded a similar deal valued at $85.7 million for four floors, 3, 4, 5, 6. This transaction is part of an effort by CUNY to secure dorm rooms for its students.

Hawkins Way Capital purchased the hotel condo unit On December 15, 2021, for $146 million from RLJ Lodging Trust.

The units are 2nd floor lot 1101 with 33 rooms, seventh floor lot 1106 with 48 rooms, eighth floor lot 1107 with 48 rooms, ninth floor lot 1108 with 48, 18th floor (marketing) lot 1116 with 29, and 19th floor (marketing) lot 1117 with 29.

Highgate Hotels in 2004 divided the building into three commercial condominium units, hotel lot 1001, garage lot 1002 and retail lot 1003, with the condo structure legally known as the Metropolitan Condominium, under condo number 1395.

In October 2024, Hawkins Way divided the hotel condo unit 1001 into 17 individual condo units. The original retail and garage condo units 1002 and 1003 were not impacted.

The 17 new hotel units were dubbed the 569 Lexington Condominium, which is nested within the Metropolitan Condominium — it is not a new, unrelated condominium structure.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer City University of New York had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Hawkins Way Capital purchased three properties in two transactions for a total of $184.5 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The block

On the tax block of 569 Lexington Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the nine commercial properties representing 1,323,713 square feet of the 1,519,621 square feet. The largest owner is Feil Organization, followed by Rudin Management and then Sonesta International Hotels.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 63 percent of the 1.5 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 33 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Hawkins Way Capital owned at least five commercial properties with six residential units in New York City with 677,375 square feet and a city-determined market value of $184.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $544.7 million in debt, with top three lenders as Standard Chartered Bank, Series 2018-C6, and G4 Capital Partners respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 81 percent of the 677,375 square feet of built space are hotel properties, with H8 properties next occupying 13 percent of the space. The bulk, or 82 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 18 percent of the space.

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