Ben Ashkenazy took out an $85 million mortgage on his Upper West Side Arthouse Hotel at 2178 Broadway, Crain’s reported.
Ashkenazy’s spokesperson Russ Colchamiro told the outlet that the loan replaces an $80 million loan paid off in November, and that the transaction is unrelated to any financial woes and is just a “run-of-the-mill refi.”
Citigroup reportedly financed the new loan, which has a 7.38 percent interest rate and comes due in five years.
The investor bought the 291-room hotel in 2016 for $140 million and spent $10 million upgrading the rooms and lobby, the outlet reported. The hotel still needs another $2 million for further renovations, including fixing the façade. The rest will be distributed to Ashkenazy and a partner.
According to KBRA, the hotel has an 80 percent occupancy rate, charges $300 per night for a room and had $30 million in revenue last year with $11 million in net operating income.
The cash-out comes after the foreclosure of Ashkenazy’s two Madison Avenue buildings in recent months. Ashkenazy acquired the land at 625 Madison Avenue for $400 million and defaulted on a $195 million loan. SL Green, the lender and owner of the $560,000 square-foot building on the property, took control and later sold it to Related for $635 million.
Then in May, a JPMorgan entity acquired the land under 635 Madison Avenue, after Ashkenazy defaulted on a $90 million loan for a ground lease. The developer also lost control of his Chelsea building, the former site of a Barney’s department store at 115 Seventh Avenue, in March 2022.
