Weihong Hu signs $20M construction loan for 166-unit hotel project in Garment District

Weihong Hu through the entity H 317-319 LLC as borrower signed a construction loan with lender Shanghai Commercial Bank valued at $20 million for the 166-unit hotel project at 319 West 35th Street in the Garment District, Manhattan.
The deal closed on April 26, 2023 and was recorded on May 3, 2023. The prior lender was Shanghai Commercial Bank.
On the lot, there is a new building project for a 166-unit, 59,250 square-foot R-1 building submitted by Wei Hong Hu and filed by Wei Hong Hu with plans filed May 14, 2019 and permitted May 1, 2023.

The owner bought the property on April 18, 2016, for $28 million. The signatory for Weihong Hu was Weihong Hu. There is an existing $34 million in debt from Shanghai Commercial from 2021.

Prior sales and revenue

The owner according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is Weihong Hu, head officer. The business entity is H317-319 Llc.

The property

The hotel building with 24 residential units in Garment District has 31,228 square feet of built space and 18,118 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 49,370 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,937 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.1 million. The most recent loan totaled $34 million and was provided by Shanghai Commercial Bank on December 2, 2021.

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 two DOB violations, $46,430 in ECB penalties, $46,430 in OATH penalties, and one housing litigation 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 2.5 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $886.6 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 15th highest in Manhattan. For development, Garment District has 3 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 9th highest in Manhattan. It had 3.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were two 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 10 of the 20 commercial properties representing 773,092 square feet of the 1,440,736 square feet. The largest owner is Viking Management, followed by Raber Enterprises and then New York Police Department.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 217,206 square feet. The largest is a 249-unit, 98,721 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Lance Steinberg and filed by Lance Steinberg with plans filed March 13, 2014 and permitted June 15, 2015. The second largest is a 166-unit, 59,250 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Wei Hong Hu and filed by Wei Hong Hu with plans filed May 14, 2019 and permitted May 1, 2023.

The majority, or 46 percent of the 1.4 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 37 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Weihong Hu owned at least four commercial properties with 20 residential units in New York City with 304,660 square feet and a city-determined market value of $67.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $83.9 million in debt, borrowed from Shanghai Commercial Bank. Within the portfolio, all identified are hotel properties. The bulk, or 69 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 31 percent of the space.

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