Lam Generation signs $22M refi with Metropolitan Commercial Bank for hotel in Grand Central

Lam Generation through the entity Ny 29 West LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Metropolitan Commercial Bank valued at $22 million for the hotel building (H3) at 21 West 37th Street in Grand Central, Manhattan.
The deal closed on July 28, 2023 and was recorded on August 1, 2023. The prior lender was Wells Fargo which held debt that had an original loan amount of $23 million.
The property has 34,690 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $634 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 November 1, 2006, for $6.5 million. The signatory for Lam Generation was Jeffrey Lam. The signatory for Metropolitan Commercial Bank was Dennis Graham and Ross Dahman.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Jessica Grant, head officer and Ashley Mahon, officer. The business entity is Ny 29 West Llc.

The property

The hotel building in Grand Central has 34,690 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 32 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 3,160 square feet. The zoning is M1-6 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $12.6 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 five DOB violations, $500 in ECB penalties, and $2,200 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on September 6, 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 Grand Central, The majority, or 83 percent of the 43.5 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space. In sales, Grand Central has 3.5 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 11th highest in Manhattan. For development, Grand Central has 2.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 14th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.7 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 this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 32 commercial properties representing 451,185 square feet of the 1,281,796 square feet. The largest owner is W&L Group, followed by Rosen Equities and then Northeast Equity Management.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 65,961 square feet. It is a 200-unit, 65,961 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by William Obeid with plans filed July 19, 2013 and permitted July 12, 2018.

The majority, or 76 percent of the 1.3 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Lam Generation owned at least five commercial properties in New York City with 304,972 square feet and a city-determined market value of $91.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $67.2 million in debt, with top three lenders as Investors Bank, East West Bank, and Shanghai Commercial Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 84 percent of the 304,972 square feet of built space are hotel properties, with retail properties next occupying 14 percent of the space. The bulk, or 98 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 2 percent of the space.

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