Garment District hotel sells for $68.7M in opaque transaction, buyer borrows $68.35M

An anonymous buyer in care of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer through the entity TSS 8th LLC paid $68.7 million to an anonymous seller in care of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott through the entity Lsch LLC D/B/A Lsch 8th Ave LLC for the 320-unit hotel building (H2) at 523-529 8th Avenue in Garment District, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.

The sale is of a ground lease, not the fee. The fee is owned by Larry A. Wohl.
The deal closed on September 30, 2025 and was recorded on October 6, 2025. The property has 98,674 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built 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 Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott registered was Gregory Weingart . The signatory for Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer registered was Gregory Weingart .

The purchase was financed with a $68.35 million loan from Oceanview Life and Annuity Company.

Sam Chang of McSam Hotel Group was a co-developer, but sold his stake valued at about $47 million in June 2021.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer registered had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott registered had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 98,674-square-foot property generated revenue of $28.6 million or $289 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The hotel building with 320 residential units in Garment District has 98,674 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 78 feet and is 104 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,454 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-6 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $44.1 million. Waterfall Asset Management on June 16, 2021 bought a loan with an original principal of from signed by Gregory Weingart, secured by 523-529 8th Avenue, when owned by Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott registered.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $1.1 million money judgment concerning a loan filed on October 18, 2023, by Gaetano Serpico estate against Peter Serpico and Omnibuild. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $1,325 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on December 5, 2019. On the lot, there is one active new building construction project, 121191165, for a 320-unit, 88,744 square-foot R-1 building. The project was submitted by McSam Hotel Group and filed by Sam Chang with plans filed October 6, 2016 and permitted October 12, 2017.

The neighborhood

In Garment District, The majority, or 69 percent of the 52.3 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 13 percent of the space. In sales, Garment District has the 8th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.3 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Garment District is the 6th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 11.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 22 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 16 of the 26 commercial properties representing 898,241 square feet of the 1,707,548 square feet. The largest owner is Lsch Llc, followed by Sioni Group and then Capitaland.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 118,288 square feet. The largest is a 320-unit, 88,744 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by McSam Hotel Group and filed by Sam Chang with plans filed October 6, 2016 and permitted July 24, 2017. The second largest is a 89-unit, 29,544 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Vertical Community Development and filed by Serpico Peter with plans filed September 26, 2014 and permitted February 9, 2016.

The majority, or 54 percent of the 1.7 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer Registered owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 337,805 square feet and a city-determined market value of $111.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, all identified are hotel properties. They are all located in Manhattan.

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