Rester Management signs $19.6M new construction loan for hotel project in Harlem

Rester Management through the entity Carthage Nexus Canada L.P. as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce  valued at $19.6 million for the hotel development site (V1) at 18 West 116th Street in Harlem, Manhattan.

On the lot, there is an active new building construction project, M08023712, for a 46-unit, 35,199 square-foot hotel (R-1) building submitted by Borough Equities and filed by Michael Bauer with plans filed October 22, 2022 and permitted November 3, 2025. The current owner according to the Department of Buildings is Moses Strulovitch.
The deal closed on September 9, 2025 and was recorded on November 24, 2025. The property has zero square feet of built space and 35,320 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 35,320 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per planned project square foot is $555 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 June 11, 2018, for $6.7 million. The signatory for Rester Management was Nitanel Deitcher .

The property

The parcel has frontage of 70 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,064 square feet. The zoning is C4-5X which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 5 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.4 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 $11,250 in ECB penalties and $12,430 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

The second largest, 121190736, is a new building project for a 29-unit, 35,122 square-foot R-2 building submitted by Geneva Hodge and filed by Geneva Hodge with plans filed May 2, 2016 and it has not been permitted yet.

The neighborhood

In Harlem, The bulk, or 43 percent of the 81.1 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Harlem has 2.4 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $711 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 15th highest in Manhattan. For development, Harlem has 2.5 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 10th highest in Manhattan. It had 3.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 13 commercial properties representing 31,340 square feet of the 90,455 square feet. The identified owner is Cb-Emmanuel Realty.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 185,777 square feet. The largest is a 123-unit, 115,456 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Procida Companies and filed by Peter Procida with plans filed November 22, 2024 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 46-unit, 35,199 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Borough Equities and filed by Michael Bauer with plans filed October 22, 2022 and permitted May 21, 2024.

The majority, or 79 percent of the 90,455 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 9 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Rester Management owned at least four commercial properties with 62 residential units in New York City with 117,893 square feet and a city-determined market value of $20.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $55.4 million in debt, borrowed from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 53 percent of the 117,893 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with specialty properties next occupying 30 percent of the space. The bulk, or 97 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 3 percent of the space.

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