Lightstone Group signs $177.8M refi for Moxy hotel in Chelsea, up from $124M

Lightstone Group through the entity LSG 105 West 28th LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with an undisclosed lender through the entity Reznik Paz Nevo Trusts Ltd valued at $177.8 million for the Moxy Chelsea hotel building (H2) at 105 West 28th Street in Chelsea, Manhattan.
The deal closed on February 29, 2024 and was recorded on March 6, 2024. The prior lender was Loancore Capital which held debt that had an original loan amount of $124 million.

The property has 145,344 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $1,223 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 July 8, 2014, for $11.6 million. The signatory for Lightstone Group was Joseph E. Teichman. The signatory for Reznik Paz Nevo Trusts was Hillel Lazarus. According to its website, “Reznik Paz Nevo acts as a trustee for about 250 series of bonds issued to the public and to Israeli institutional investors by both Israeli and foreign companies.”

The property

The hotel building in Chelsea has 145,344 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 64 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 6,354 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 $46.9 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 $650 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on January 16, 2019. On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 350-unit, 112,341 square-foot R-1 building. The project was submitted by Lightstone Group and filed by Joseph Teichman with plans filed January 10, 2014 and permitted November 10, 2016.

The neighborhood

In Chelsea, The bulk, or 36 percent of the 52.4 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 10th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Chelsea has 1.4 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 20th highest in Manhattan. It had 1.4 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 seven of the 32 commercial properties representing 758,999 square feet of the 1,556,271 square feet. The largest owner is Samco Properties, followed by Lightstone Group and then Lexin Capital.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 142,049 square feet. The largest is a 350-unit, 112,341 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Lightstone Group and filed by Joseph Teichman with plans filed January 10, 2014 and permitted March 28, 2016. The second largest is a 37-unit, 29,708 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Hasso Gulrajaney with plans filed May 13, 2015 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 54 percent of the 1.6 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Lightstone Group owned at least 34 commercial properties with 2,314 residential units in New York City with 2,823,226 square feet and a city-determined market value of $351.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.3 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and JLL respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 61 percent of the 2,823,226 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with hotel properties next occupying 17 percent of the space. The bulk, or 37 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Queens next at 26 percent of the space.

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