Gehr Group signs $49.5M refi with Citibank for hotel in Garment District

Gehr Group through the entity Times Square Hospitality Fee I LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Citibank through the entity Citi Real Estate Funding Inc. valued at $49.5 million for the Four Points by Sheraton Midtown – Times Square hotel building (H2) at 326 West 40th Street in the Garment District, Manhattan.
The deal closed on April 13, 2026 and was recorded on April 17, 2026. The prior lender was Trimont which held debt that had an original loan amount of $54.5 million. The property has 98,738 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $501 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 owner bought the property on June 1, 2011, for $112 million. The signatory for Gehr Group was David Lifschitz . The signatory for Citibank was Anna Gutteridge .

Prior sales, articles and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes David Lifschitz, head officer and Ed Duess, agent. The business entities are Gehr Hospitality, Llc and Times Square Hospitality I, Llc. The 98,738-square-foot property generated revenue of $19.1 million or $193 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The hotel building in Garment District has 98,738 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,938 square feet. The zoning is C6-4 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $41.9 million. Citibank on April 13, 2026 bought a loan with an original principal of $54.5 million from Trimont signed by Amy Frye , secured by 326 West 40th Street, when owned by Gehr Group .

Transaction Participants

Salvatore Mastrosimone at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP participated in the transaction on behalf of Citibank.

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 received $375 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on September 17, 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 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 9th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Garment District is the 6th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 11.5 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 were 63 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 31 commercial properties representing 1,159,669 square feet of the 1,572,885 square feet. The largest owner is Mack Real Estate Group, followed by Gehr Group and then Mcsam Hotel Group.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 19,255 square feet. It is a 25-unit, 19,255 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Man Hei Li with plans filed May 15, 2019 and permitted May 25, 2022.

The majority, or 71 percent of the 1.6 million square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with office buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Gehr Group owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 200,738 square feet and a PincusCo-determined asset value of $90 million. The portfolio has $72.7 million in debt, borrowed from Guardian Life Insurance Company of America and MidFirst Bank. Within the portfolio, all identified are hotel properties.

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