Slate pays $260M to Sioni Group for hotel in Penn Plaza, plans affordable resi conversion

Slate Property Group in partnership with nonprofit social service organization Breaking Ground, through the entity 371 7th Avenue Owner LLC paid $260 million to Sioni Group and Patriarch Equities through the entity CYH Manhattan LLC for the 529-unit Stewart Hotel building (H1) at 371 Seventh Avenue in Penn Plaza, Manhattan and the adjacent garage building (G6) at 148 West 31st Street in Penn Plaza, Manhattan. The expected use is conversion/addition.
The deal closed on December 19, 2025 and was recorded on December 29, 2025. The two properties have 473,391 square feet of built space and 24,190 square feet of additional air rights according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $549 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 Sioni Group was Payman Yadidi . The signatory for Slate Property Group and Breaking Ground was David Walsh and David Schwartz . The contract date was June 6, 2025. Slate Property Group and Breaking Ground intend to convert the Stewart Hotel into 579 permanently affordable apartments, including one superintendant unit. The apartments will be restricted to applicants below 80% AMI to start, and on re-leasing a unit, the applicant must be below 60% AMI, and in addition, half the units are set aside for applicants that were previously homeless.

At the same time, Slate and Breaking Ground borrowed $295 million from Wells Fargo, the New York State Housing Finance Agency, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the Low Income Investment Fund.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Slate Property Group purchased five properties in four transactions for a total of $212.9 million and sold six properties in five transactions for a total of $64.2 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Sioni Group purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $71.3 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Ray Yadidi, head officer and Isaak Chetrit, shareholder. The business entities are Cyh Manhattan Llc and Cyh Manhattan Llc. Out of the two properties, one with a total of 473,391 square feet of built space generated revenue of $69.1 million per year.
Commercial Observer reported on December 22, 2025 that Slate Property Group paid $255 million to Sioni Group for 371 Seventh Avenue, Manhattan, NY.

Crain’s New York reported on December 22, 2025 that Slate Property Group and Breaking Ground paid $255 million to Sioni Group, Patriarch Equities, and Isaac and Eli Chetrit for 371 Seventh Ave, Midtown, Manhattan. The sell-side brokers were David Hayum, Rael Gervis of Meridian Capital Group.

The property

The hotel building with 529 residential units in Penn Plaza has 473,391 square feet of built space and 24,190 square feet of additional air rights according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 88 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 19,011 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C6-4 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $106 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 four DOB violations, $10,000 in ECB penalties, and $38,162 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot buildings, one out of the two buildings received a initial certificate of occupancy in the last ten years. On these lots, there is one active major alteration construction project, M01141450, for a 625-unit, 22,179 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Sioni Group and filed by Jack Yadidi with plans filed December 5, 2024 and it has not been permitted yet.

The neighborhood

In Penn Plaza, The majority, or 76 percent of the 20.4 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space. In sales, Penn Plaza has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $157.7 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Penn Plaza has 2.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 9th highest in Manhattan. It had 3.9 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 19 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 371 7th Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 14 commercial properties representing 1,351,025 square feet of the 1,513,826 square feet. The largest owner is Vanbarton Group, followed by Sioni Group and then Altitude Capital Management.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 55 percent of the 1.5 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 43 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Sioni Group owned at least 11 commercial properties with 829 residential units in New York City with 1,238,502 square feet and a city-determined market value of $335.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $563.2 million in debt, with top three lenders as Valley National Bank, Kennedy Wilson, and Crum & Forster respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 62 percent of the 1,238,502 square feet of built space are office properties, with hotel properties next occupying 38 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Slate Property Group owned at least 68 commercial properties with 3,518 residential units in New York City with 3,509,673 square feet and a city-determined market value of $855.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.7 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Mack Real Estate Group, JPMorgan Chase, and Apollo Global Management respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 73 percent of the 3,509,673 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with hotel properties next occupying 12 percent of the space. The bulk, or 58 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 26 percent of the space.
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Breaking Ground owned at least eight commercial properties with 1,190 residential units in New York City with 1,143,047 square feet and a city-determined market value of $181.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $862.2 million in debt, with top three lenders as NYS Housing Finance Agency, City of New York, and City of New York respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 78 percent of the 1,143,047 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with specialty properties next occupying 22 percent of the space. The bulk, or 50 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 28 percent of the space.

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