Qatar fund signs $400M acquisition loan with Apollo for Park Lane hotel

Qatar Investment Authority through the entity Symphony CP (Park Lane) Owner LLC as borrower signed an acquisition loan with lender Apollo Global Management through the entity Athene Annuity And Life Company valued at $400 million for the Park Lane hotel (H1) at 36 Central Park South in Midtown West, Manhattan.

On the same day, Qatar Investment Authority through the entity Central Acquisition Co LLC paid $622.9 million to the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala Investment Company through the entity Symphony Cp (Park Lane) LLC for the Park Lane New York hotel building (H1) at 36 Central Park South in Midtown West, Manhattan. The sale is an entity level exchange, not a deed transfer. PincusCo first reported the purchase on August 28, 2023.
The loan closed on August 17, 2023 and was recorded on August 28, 2023. The prior lender was Deutsche Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $425 million.

The property has 442,000 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $904 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 Qatar Investment Authority was John Nolan Haynes. The signatory for Apollo Global Management was Jeffrey Horowitz.

The property

The hotel building in Midtown West has 442,000 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 127 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 20,275 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C5-2.5 which allows for up to 12 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $124.5 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received $1,250 in ECB penalties and $3,700 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 Midtown West, The majority, or 75 percent of the 75.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown West has the 3rd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $3 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 17.9 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 24 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other hotel buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 36 Central Park South, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the five commercial properties representing 711,346 square feet of the 771,047 square feet. The two identified owners are Qatar Investment Authority and Atco Properties & Management.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 57 percent of the 771,047 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 43 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Qatar Investment Authority owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 442,000 square feet and a city-determined market value of $124.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $479 million in debt, borrowed from Bank of China. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 100 percent of the 442,000 square feet of built space are hotel properties, with development properties next occupying 0 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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