Maheshchand Ratanji buys hotel in Hell’s Kitchen for $49.625M
538 West 48th Street (Credit - Cyclomedia)
UPDATED 6:35 p.m., January 8, 2026: Maheshchand Ratanji through the entity TSQ Hotel LLC acquired the hotel building (H3) at 538 West 48th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan from the entity GLSC 48 Special LLC, an affiliate of the Roufail family, for $49.625 million. The expected use is cash flowing.
Simultaneously with the sale, Ratanji borrowed $30 million from Webster Bank, city records show.
City property records indicated the sale price for the real estate was $26.5 million, however the full sale price for the hotel was $49.625 million as stated in city property records.
The $49.625 million sale price yields a price per built square foot of $804, 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 September 30, 2014, for $16.5 million. The signatory for the Roufail family was a representative of the family. The signatory for Maheshchand Ratanji was Maheshchand Ratanji. The contract date was October 6, 2025.
The late Fahim Roufail was a co-invester with hotelier Sam Chang.
Prior sales, articles and revenue
Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Maheshchand Ratanji purchased four properties in four transactions for a total of $45.2 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 61,700-square-foot property generated revenue of $12.3 million or $200 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.
The property
The hotel building in Hell’s Kitchen has 61,700 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 10,042 square feet. The zoning is R8 which allows for up to 6.02 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $19.9 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 $4,800 in ECB penalties and $6,200 in OATH penalties in the last year.
Development
For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on May 14, 2013. 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 Hell’s Kitchen, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 40.8 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Hell’s Kitchen has 3.6 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 10th highest in Manhattan. For development, Hell’s Kitchen has 1.9 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 14th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.8 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 13 of the 24 commercial properties representing 326,513 square feet of the 396,710 square feet. The largest owner is M&R Hotel Management, followed by Hudson Companies and then Related Companies.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 185,375 square feet. It is a 222-unit, 185,375 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by SK Development and filed by Scott Shnay with plans filed October 13, 2017 and permitted July 2, 2019.
The majority, or 36 percent of the 396,710 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space.
The buyer
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Maheshchand Ratanji owned at least 12 commercial properties with 85 residential units in New York City with 329,447 square feet and a city-determined market value of $63.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $68.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as State Bank of Texas, Rajendra R. Patel, and Mamraben R. Patel respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 86 percent of the 329,447 square feet of built space are hotel properties, with development properties next occupying 14 percent of the space. The bulk, or 58 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 21 percent of the space.
Correction: A prior version of this post, relying on city property records, reported the sale at $26.5 million, however that was only the price for the real estate. In fact the full sale price cited on property records was $49.625 million. In addition the post removed information related to an individual.
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