W&L Group signs $14.9M refi with CTBC Bank for hotel in Grand Central

W&L Group through the entity Hkony West 37 LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender CTBC Bank valued at $14.9 million for the 25-foot-wide hotel building (H3) at 11 West 37th Street in Grand Central, Manhattan.
The deal closed on March 4, 2025 and was recorded on March 31, 2025. The prior lender was Berkshire Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $16.5 million.
The property has 28,059 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $530 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 January 30, 2014, for $7.8 million. The signatory for W&L Group was Meng Hua Wang , also known as Thomas Wang. The signatory for CTBC Bank was Mingdao Li.

Prior sales and revenue

The 28,059-square-foot property generated revenue of $5.9 million or $209 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The hotel building in Grand Central has 28,059 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,469 square feet. The zoning is M1-6 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.5 million. The most recent loan totaled $16.5 million and was provided by Berkshire Bank on December 31, 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 $8,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on September 13, 2019. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Grand Central, The majority, or 83 percent of the 44.4 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space. In sales, Grand Central has the 8th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Grand Central is the 7th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5.8 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 13 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 32 commercial properties representing 597,995 square feet of the 1,281,796 square feet. The largest owner is Jay Suites, followed by Rosen Equities and then Northeast Equity Management.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 65,961 square feet. It is a 200-unit, 65,961 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by William Obeid with plans filed July 19, 2013 and permitted July 12, 2018.

The majority, or 76 percent of the 1.3 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that W&L Group owned at least five commercial properties with 231 residential units in New York City with 718,786 square feet and a city-determined market value of $33.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $317.7 million in debt, with top three lenders as G4 Capital Partners, Preferred Bank, and Royal Business Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 60 percent of the 718,786 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with hotel properties next occupying 40 percent of the space. The bulk, or 41 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 37 percent of the space.

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