Maheshchand Ratanji pays $14M to SMA Group NYC for hotel in Hudson Yards

Maheshchand Ratanji through the entity Essence Hotel Ii LLC paid $14 million to SMA Group NYC through the entity Orchard Lodging LLC for the hotel building (H3) at 449 West 36th Street in Hudson Yards, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
PincusCo reported on this transaction in October 2024 after the parties recorded a memorandum of contract.
The deal closed on December 30, 2024 and was recorded on January 14, 2025. The property has 12,340 square feet of built space and 2,518 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 14,863 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,134 and the price per buildable square foot is $941 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 seller bought the property on June 25, 2015, for $15 million. The signatory for SMA Group NYC was Jin Sup An. The signatory for Maheshchand Ratanji was Maheshchand Ratanji. The contract date was August 28, 2024. SMA Group NYC is not affiliated with SMA Equities.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Maheshchand Ratanji purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $22 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller SMA Group NYC had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The hotel building in Hudson Yards has 12,340 square feet of built space and 2,518 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 14,863 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,469 square feet. The zoning is R8A which allows for up to 6.02 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3 million. The most recent loan totaled $8.7 million and was provided by NewBank on January 17, 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 $9,487 in ECB penalties and $9,487 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 Hudson Yards, The majority, or 59 percent of the 16.8 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space. In sales, Hudson Yards has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $83.6 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Hudson Yards has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 24th highest in Manhattan. It had 1.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 15 commercial properties representing 55,932 square feet of the 350,496 square feet. The two identified owners are Zd Jasper Realty and Maheshchand Ratanji.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 128,331 square feet. The largest is a 128-unit, 128,331 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by ZD Jasper Realty and filed by Susan Wu with plans filed February 17, 2023 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 52-unit residential (R-2) building submitted by Tom Wu with plans filed August 1, 2022 and permitted December 2, 2024.

The majority, or 61 percent of the 350,496 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Maheshchand Ratanji owned at least 10 commercial properties with 85 residential units in New York City with 311,411 square feet and a city-determined market value of $59.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $25 million in debt, with top three lenders as Rajendra R. Patel, Mamraben R. Patel, and PCSB Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 85 percent of the 311,411 square feet of built space are hotel properties, with development properties next occupying 15 percent of the space. The bulk, or 56 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 22 percent of the space.

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