Hartz Mountain signs $230M refi for Soho Grand, Roxy Hotel in Manhattan

The nearly 100-year old Hartz Mountain Industries through the entities Soho Grand Hotel, Inc. and Tribeca Grand Hotel Inc. as borrowers, signed a refi loan with lender JPMorgan Chase valued at $230 million for two Manhattan hotel properties including the Soho Grand Hotel building (HB) at 310 West Broadway in SoHo, and the Roxy Hotel building (HB) at 2 Sixth Avenue in Tribeca.
The deal closed on August 20, 2024 and was recorded on August 29, 2024. The prior lender was CSAIL 2015-C1 also known as Series 2015-C1 which held debt that had an original loan amount of $250 million.
The two properties have 323,881 square feet of built space and 174,087 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 445,415 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $710 and the price per buildable square foot is $516 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 Hartz Mountain Industries was Mark Killough. The signatory for JPMorgan Chase was Jessica Wong.
The Stern family’s Hartz Mountain Industries built the Soho Grand hotel, which opened in 1996. Hartz Mountain, a family company that Max Stern founded in 1926 as a pet supplier, also owns 667 Madison Avenue which it built in 1987, and 32-38 Cooper Square.  The family at one time owned the Village Voice. In 2000 the family sold the pet supply and publishing divisions to focus on real estate.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Ellis Yee, head officer and James Donohue, site manager. The business entity is Soho Grand Hotel Inc.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received three DOB violations and $14,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In SoHo, The bulk, or 46 percent of the 9.5 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space. In sales, SoHo has 1.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $514 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 17th highest in Manhattan. For development, SoHo has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 218,716 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of the Soho Grand Hotel, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 13 commercial properties representing 78,300 square feet of the 294,604 square feet. The largest owner is Thor Equities, followed by Kano Real Estate Investments and then Marlon Moskowitz Irrevocable Trust.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 326,974 square feet. It is a 326,974 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Taconic Partners and filed by Colleen Wenke with plans filed June 14, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 83 percent of the 294,604 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 7 percent of the space.

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