Hawkins Way Capital signs $166.5M refi with Goldman, Wells Fargo for dorm in Midtown East

Hawkins Way Capital and Varde Partners through the entity 525 Lexington Owner, LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo valued at $166.5 million for dormitory condominium units at 525 Lexington Avenue in Midtown East, Manhattan.
The deal closed on November 14, 2025 and was recorded on November 24, 2025. The prior lender was Madison Realty Capital which held debt that had an original loan amount of $166.5 million. The 32 properties have 304,530 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $546 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 Hawkins Way Capital and Varde Partners was Joshua Bird and Anita Delshad . The signatory for Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo was Siddharth Shrivastava and Jeffrey L. Cirillo .

The property

The hotel condo in Midtown East has 710,791 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has a total lot size of 14,756 square feet.

Violations and lawsuits

The properties were involved in two lawsuits and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The highest value suit was a $1 million money judgment concerning a contract filed on April 15, 2024, by Deka Immobilien against Hawkins Way Capital and Varde Partners. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

On these lots, there is one active major alteration construction project, M00834126, to convert from a hotel to a 120-unit, 374,348 square-foot dormitory building. The project was submitted by Hawkins Way Capital and filed by Karan Suri with plans filed March 30, 2023 and permitted July 21, 2023.

The neighborhood

In Midtown East, The majority, or 81 percent of the 62.6 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 7 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown East has the 2nd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $3.9 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown East is the 3rd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 17.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 28 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 525 Lexington Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the four commercial properties representing 2,379,169 square feet of the 2,379,169 square feet. The largest owner is Fisher Brothers, followed by Sovereign Partners and then Varde Partners.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 64 percent of the 2.4 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 36 percent of the space.

The borrower

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.
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Varde Partners owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 406,261 square feet and a city-determined market value of $89.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single hotel property. It is located in Manhattan.

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