Himmel + Meringoff signs $93M refi with Delaware Life for office in Hell’s Kitchen

Himmel + Meringoff Properties through the entity 521 -533 West 57th Street Associates LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Delaware Life Insurance Company through the entity Sig Cre 2023 Venture LLC valued at $125 million for two office properties including the office condo at 521-523 West 57th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan and office condo at 521 West 57th St in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan.
The deal closed on March 27, 2025 and was recorded on April 17, 2025. The prior lender was Blackstone Group which held debt that had an original loan amount of $125 million.The two properties have 224,998 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $555 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 Himmel + Meringoff Properties was Stephen J. Meringoff . The signatory for Delaware Life Insurance Company was James Alban .

The original $125 million loan was split into a senior $83 million piece and a subordinate $42 million piece. The senior piece was assigned to Delaware Life, which then provided $10 million in new debt. The $42 million piece was not recorded, and according to property documents, “The subordinate note is unsecured but constitutes the personal recourse undertakings, obligations and liabilities of Mortgagor.”

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 not received any significant violations in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Hell’s Kitchen, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 40.8 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Hell’s Kitchen has 2.7 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $719.8 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 15th highest in Manhattan. For development, Hell’s Kitchen has 2.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 16th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 521-523 West 57th Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the nine commercial properties representing 136,052 square feet of the 213,988 square feet. The largest owner is Mcsam Hotel Group, followed by Gene Jiyoon Park and then Scharfman Organization.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 32 percent of the 213,988 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Himmel + Meringoff Properties owned at least five commercial properties in New York City with 654,029 square feet and a city-determined market value of $140.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $251.8 million in debt, with top three lenders as Aareal Capital, Signature Bank, and TriState Capital Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 70 percent of the 654,029 square feet of built space are office properties, with industrial properties next occupying 30 percent of the space. The bulk, or 70 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 30 percent of the space.

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