Israel-based Summit extends ground lease for portion of Shoreham in Midtown West, valued at $22.1M

Summit Properties, a subsidiary of Israel-based Summit Real Estate Holdings, through the entity Shoreham Hotel Holding LLC signed a ground lease extension valued at $22.1 million with landlord Larry Wohl’s entity Ronbet West 55th Street LLC for 39 West 55th Street, which is one of two buildings that make up the 179-key Shoreham Hotel, in Midtown West, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing. The other building which pairs to form the hotel is adjacent to the east, 33 West 55th Street.
The deal closed on April 30, 2025 and was recorded on May 5, 2025. The property has 40,197 square feet of built space for a total buildable of 40,200 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $549 and the price per buildable square foot is $549 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 Larry Wohl was Larry Wohl. The signatory for Summit Properties was Tomer Pomeranz . Summit Properties is also known as Summit Properties USA and Summit Real Estate Group. (It is not affiliated with a St. Louis company with the same name, Summit Real Estate Group.)

This is a ground lease extension to August 31, 2121. The fee is owned by an affiliate of Larry Wohl.

There is an error in the metes and bounds for this ground lease extension. The Shoreham hotel occupies 33 and 39 West 55th Street, which are lots 19 and 17 respectively. The text narrative uses the address “39 West 55th Street” (lot 17) exclusively, however the metes and bounds describe the tax lot 19, which is for 33 West 55th Street.

A Summit joint venture partner controls 33 West 55th Street through a ground lease, but the fee owners of 33 West 55th Street are not affiliated with Larry Wohl. Instead, they are descendants of the late investor Herbert M. Sonneborn Jr.

The Shoreham hotel has been through distress. Brad M. Reiss’s Ark Partners through the entity The Shoreham LLC acquired the leaseholds for 33 and 39 West 55th Street in January 2004 from a Credit Suisse investment fund, then in December 2004 borrowed $10 million, and in October 2006 refinanced with $35 million from Credit Suisse’s Column Financial. The lender filed a foreclosure case in 2014, 850312/2014 and ultimately the lender took the property back in 2017.

In 2021, Mehran Kohansieh’s Kohan Retail Investment Group, acquired the leaseholds for 33 and 39 West 55th Street in two transactions that year, each valued at $500,000, from an affiliate of former securitized lender Series 2007-C1, later known as CSMC 2007-C1-33 W 55th Street LLC, in care of LNR Partners. Kohan Retail Investment Group and Summit have partnered on a number of large retail properties, according to a PincusCo analysis of each company’s portfolio and news reports.

According to a recent Summit Properties’ annual report: “During 2021, a subsidiary of the Company in an agreement with a local partner acquired the lease rights in two hotels that include 514 rooms in central locations in Manhattan, New York. The hotels in an area of about 27 thousand square meters are built on leased land for a period of 25-90 years. During 2022 and 2023 the subsidiary acquired full ownership of the two hotels.”

Larry Wohl’s father Joseph S. Wohl in partnership with Norman F. Levy bought 39 West 55th Street in May 1966.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Summit Properties had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Larry Wohl had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Mehran Kohansieh, head officer and Allison Gudge, agent. The business entities are Shoreham Hotel and Shoreham Hotel Holding Llc. The 40,197-square-foot property generated revenue of $10.6 million or $264 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The hotel building in Midtown West has 40,197 square feet of built space for a total buildable of 40,200 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,025 square feet. The lot is irregular. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $13.9 million.

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 one DOB violation and $750 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on July 18, 2019. 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 Midtown West, The majority, or 75 percent of the 75.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown West has the 2nd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 32.9 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 43 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 22 of the 35 commercial properties representing 1,458,530 square feet of the 1,597,691 square feet. The largest owner is Paramount Group, followed by Barings and then BLDG Management.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 58 percent of the 1.6 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 16 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Larry Wohl owned at least four commercial properties in New York City with 768,891 square feet and a city-determined market value of $160.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $119.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as Apple Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and CUNA Mutual Group respectively. Within the portfolio, all identified are office properties. The bulk, or 73 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 27 percent of the space.

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