Lam Group signs $40M refi for Chelsean Hotel in Chelsea
Lam Group through the entity Chelsea Grand, LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Metropolitan Commercial Bank valued at $40 million for the Chelsean Hotel building (H3) at 160 West 25th Street in Chelsea, Manhattan.
The deal closed on January 24, 2025 and was recorded on February 4, 2025. The prior lender was H.I.G. Capital which held debt that had an original loan amount of $50 million.The property has 55,916 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $715 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 Lam Group was Kin Chung Lam, also known as John Lam. The signatory for Metropolitan Commercial Bank was Ross Dahmen and Jay Shah.
Prior sales and revenue
The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Kin Chung Lam, head officer and Adam Modica, site manager. The business entity is Chelsea Grand Llc. The 55,916-square-foot property generated revenue of $13.7 million or $245 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.
The property
The hotel building in Chelsea has 55,916 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 55 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,431 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 $27 million. The most recent loan totaled $108.4 million and was provided by H.I.G. Capital on January 26, 2024.
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, $3,750 in ECB penalties, and $5,125 in OATH penalties in the last year.
Development
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 Chelsea, The bulk, or 35 percent of the 52.5 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space. In sales, Chelsea has the 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.5 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Chelsea has 1.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 20th highest in Manhattan. It had 1.8 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.
The block
On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 12 of the 25 commercial properties representing 731,084 square feet of the 1,107,133 square feet. The largest owner is Lam Generation, followed by Edison Properties and then Magna Hospitality Group.
On the tax block, there were five new building construction projects totaling 329,947 square feet. The largest is a 341-unit, 141,734 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Lam Generation and filed by Jeffrey Lam with plans filed September 17, 2014 and permitted February 3, 2016. The second largest is a 375-unit, 126,733 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Sal Aquilato with plans filed February 14, 2018 and permitted July 29, 2020.
The majority, or 49 percent of the 1.1 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 Lam Group owned at least eight commercial properties with 192 residential units in New York City with 1,432,846 square feet and a city-determined market value of $400.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $540.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as Shanghai Commercial Bank, H.I.G. Capital, and Deutsche Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 70 percent of the 1,432,846 square feet of built space are hotel properties, with elevator properties next occupying 28 percent of the space. The bulk, or 81 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 19 percent of the space.
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