Trimont records two-year-old $147M note purchase secured by Freehand hotel in Kips Bay

In 2021, Trimont through the entity Trimont Real Estate Advisors, LLC bought a note with an original principal of $147 million from Credit Suisse secured by Queensgate Investments’ Freehand New York hotel (H2) at 135 East 23rd Street in Kips Bay, Manhattan. The note sale was only recorded yesterday, November 1, 2023. It was unclear why there was a delay and why it was recorded now.
The note sale closed on March 12, 2021 and was recorded on November 1, 2023. The prior lender was Credit Suisse which held debt that had an original loan amount of $147 million.
Queensgate Investments bought the hotel in October 2019 for $173.9 million.
The property has 163,311 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.
The signatory for Queensgate Investments was Matthew Berhinig. This is the Freehand Hotel. Credit Suisse through the division Column Financial assigned the loan in March 2021 to Trimont Real Estate Advisors, a division of Trimont, headquartered in Atlanta. Despite the delay in recording, a UCC3 filing, which terminated the initial UCC for Credit Suisse, was in fact recorded in March 2021 and noted Trimont was the new note holder.

Prior sales and revenue

The owner according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is Alain Derderian, head officer. The business entity is 23 Lexington Associates Llc.

The property

The hotel building in Kips Bay has 163,311 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 197 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,875 square feet. The zoning is C6-4A 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 $38.6 million. The most recent loan totaled $147.2 million and was provided by Credit Suisse on October 11, 2019.

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 eight DOB violations, one housing violation, and $3,500 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on June 5, 2018. On the lot, there is one active major alteration construction project for a 417-unit, 148,767 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Jordan Goldberg with plans filed April 21, 2016 and permitted October 26, 2016.

The neighborhood

In Kips Bay, The bulk, or 50 percent of the 21.5 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space. In sales, Kips Bay has 2.5 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $882.6 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 15th highest in Manhattan. For development, Kips Bay has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 587,300 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 24 commercial properties representing 818,785 square feet of the 1,149,704 square feet. The largest owner is United States Postal Service, followed by Steven Rosenthal and then Sol Goldman Investments.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 24,991 square feet. It is a 14-unit, 24,991 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Stefano Farsura with plans filed August 4, 2016 and permitted February 13, 2018.

The majority, or 38 percent of the 1.1 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space.

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