Sister City Hotel at 225 Bowery Receives $80M Loan
The former Salvation Army building in Manhattan’s Chinatown, which was converted into a trendy hotel, has been refinanced following its renovations.
NEW YORK CITY—The former Bowery Salvation Army building at 225 Bowery, which was converted into a hotel called Sister City, received an $80 million bridge loan. Bank Hapoalim provided the first-mortgage financing.
Omnia and Northwind Group had purchased the 55,000-square-foot structure for more than $30 million. In March 2014, The Real Deal had reported that building owned by the Salvation Army housed the Chinatown Community Center where hundreds of meals were served daily. The sale resulted in the shelter’s moving to Brooklyn.
The new owners renovated the century-old property adding the top three floors to the 14-story building, converting it into a trendy hotel managed by Ace Hotels. The 200-key hospitality asset will have a 234-seat café, a 150-set rooftop bar and a ground-floor garden.
Representing the owners, the Mission Capital team of Jonathan More, Steve Buchwald, Ari Hirt and Jamie Matheny arranged the financing.
Ace manages nine other properties totaling 1,400 rooms across the country. In January 2018, Curbed had reported the development would be a micro-hotel with rooms ranging from 162 to 262 square feet. Sister City is open and booking reservations. As of April 4, online available rooms for this month ranged from $149 to $269 per night.
The Omnia Group is a design, development and building firm run by its president David Paz. It has completed over 20 projects in Manhattan. Led by Ran Eliasaf the Northwind Group is a Manhattan-based real estate private equity firm focused on commercial, value-add residential, hospitality and senior housing.
The companies have previously worked together on several projects, including a luxury rental building at 351 W. 54th St. in Hell’s Kitchen. They sold that property in 2017 to Bentley Zhao for $34 million.