Maverick buys $25.5M note secured by Thor Equities Meatpacking retail

Maverick Real Estate Partners through the entity Meatpacking Retail LLC bought a note with an original principal of $25.5 million from Granite Point Mortgage Trust secured by Thor Equities’s retail building (O9) at 446 West 14th Street in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan.
The deal closed on November 9, 2022 and was recorded on December 22, 2022. The prior lender was Granite Point Mortgage Trust which held debt that had an original loan amount of $25.5 million. The property has 15,428 square feet of built space and 10,375 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 25,810 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data.
Last year, Gucci did a pop-up in the building, the Commercial Observer reported at the time.
Maverick has purchased loans in at least 37 transactions with a combined principal of $379 million since mid-2019, according to PincusCo data. The most active year was 2021, with 18 loans. This is the eighth loan purchase for Maverick this year, according to PincusCo information.
Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities bought the property on March 23, 2007, for $23.4 million. The signatory for Thor Equities’ 2018 loan was Morris Missry.

In 2018, TH Commercial, an affiliate of Two Harbors Investment, originated the loans with an original principal of $25.5 million. The loans were transferred to another affiliate of Two Harbors, Granite Point Mortgage Trust, which then assigned the debt to Maverick.

Granite Point Mortgage Trust, according to a company press release, “was formed by Two Harbors [Investment Corp.] in order to continue and expand the commercial real estate lending business established by Two Harbors. Granite Point will focus on directly originating, investing in and managing a portfolio of commercial real estate loans and other debt and debt-like instruments. Granite Point will be externally managed by Pine River Capital Management L.P., which is the parent company of Two Harbors‚Äô external manager.”

Prior sales and revenue

The 15,428-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.7 million or $107 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 446 West 14th Street parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 103 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,162 square feet. The zoning is M1-5 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The property is in the Gansevoort Market Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $7.7 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $330 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on August 2, 2012. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Meatpacking District, the bulk, or 27 percent of the 2 million square feet of commercial built space are retail buildings, with office buildings next occupying 26 percent of the space. In sales, Meatpacking District has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $271.3 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Meatpacking District has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 3,485 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 0.17 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 23 commercial properties representing 382,570 square feet of the 866,063 square feet. The largest owner is Torchlight Investors, followed by Canali USA and then William Gottlieb Real Estate.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 117,657 square feet. It is a zero-unit, 117,657-square-foot B building developed by Matthew Abreu with plans filed October 29, 2015 and permitted April 18, 2017.

the majority, or 67 percent of the 608,446 square feet of built space are office buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 33 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database, which is incomplete, currently indicates that Thor Equities owned at least 25 commercial properties in New York City. The portfolio has $248.8 million in debt recorded since 2019, with the top three lenders MetLife, Athene Holding, and AB CarVal Investors respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 57 percent of the 572,486 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with retail properties next occupying 12 percent of the space. The bulk, or 98 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 2 percent of the space.

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