Unification Church-affiliate buys $110M note on Unification-owned New Yorker Hotel

An affiliate of the Sun Myung Moon-founded Unification Church through the entity HJ Magnolia Youngpyoung PineRidge bought a note with an original principal of $110 million from Yellowstone Real Estate Investments secured by the Unification Church’s New Yorker Hotel (H2) at 481 Eighth Avenue in Garment District, Manhattan. The formal name for the church is Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, and before 1994 it was known as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity.
The deal closed on December 22, 2023 and was recorded on January 8, 2024. The prior lender was Yellowstone Real Estate Investments which held debt that had an original loan amount of $110 million.
The property has 1,300,727 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.
The church bought the hotel in 1976, and in 2016 borrowed $110 million from M&T Bank. The Commercial Observer reported in July last year that the brokerage Newmark was marketing the loan, then with a principal of $106 million, for sale. PincusCo reported in September that hotel owner MCR had signed a term sheet to pay off the outstanding loan with $125 million in financing.

HJ Magnolia Youngpyoung PineRidge is a resort in South Korea that is affiliated with the Unification Church, according to published reports.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Ciriel Monsels, head officer and Tal Zorer, officer. The business entity is Holy Spirit Assoc For The Unification.

The property

The hotel building in Garment District has 1,300,727 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 197 feet and is 175 feet deep with a total lot size of 34,561 square feet. 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 $148.9 million.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, $1,250 in ECB penalties, three housing violations, and $14,540 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Garment District, The majority, or 69 percent of the 51.8 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 12 percent of the space. In sales, Garment District has 2.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $690.3 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 18th highest in Manhattan. For development, Garment District is the 6th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5.9 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 11 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 this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the six commercial properties representing 1,643,323 square feet of the 1,756,923 square feet. The two identified owners are Unification Church and Taconic Partners.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 74 percent of the 1.8 million square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with office buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Unification Church owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 1,300,727 square feet and a city-determined market value of $148.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single hotel property. It is located in Manhattan.

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