The owner of a dilapidated, long-vacant hotel nicknamed the “Black Hole of Times Square” is said to be hundreds of millions of dollars behind on loans related to the property, leaving the lender in the red.
According to reports, Joseph and Mayer Chetrit are mortgaged to the Carter Hotel, an infamous mega-property at 250 West 43rd Street that has been cited multiple times as the “filthiest hotel in America.” Mac Real Estate Credit Strategies has reportedly filed a lawsuit for failing to pay a $223 million mezzanine loan. Hotel. “
Mack is hoping for a “quick repayment” of the loan, which will be issued in 2022 and comes due in September. According to Crain's. If the Chetrites are unable to submit funds or negotiate new terms before a Manhattan Supreme Court hearing on Feb. 20, Mack could move to foreclose on the hotel, the newspaper reported.
The suit does not involve the primary lien on the property, which opened as the Hotel Dixie in 1930 and has changed ownership numerous times.
The Chetrites purchased the 700-room low-end inn in 2015 for $192 million. They had planned a major renovation, but construction has stalled, and scaffolding and construction fences have been left in disarray around the building for the past few years.
Crain's said the Chetrites have paid more than $420,000 in state and city fines for the dilapidated building.
Joseph Chetrit's lawyer, Leo Jacobs, told Crain's that he intended to postpone his February court appearance for up to two months. He blamed the lending situation on “market instability.”
Jacobs did not respond to The Post's request for further comment.
The eyesore stands between the Lyric Theater, home of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and the Westin Hotel. Its state of ruin has long worried local businesses and civic leaders.
Asked if Carter falls within the boundaries of the Times Square Alliance Business Improvement District, the organization's president said, “Unfortunately, it does.”
The manager of the first Los Tacos across the street, who didn't want to give his name, said: Drug addicts go behind wooden fences at night. They do business there. The building is closed so no one will stop you. ”
The Carter was originally a fine, affordable hotel, but it was never a jewel. This was the site of four murders over the years. Among them was the strangled and beaten naked body of aspiring model Kristin Ittlef, who was found under a bed in 2007.
Urban development officials in the 1980s called it “Nightmare Alley.” It was considered inappropriate even for the homeless family living there at the time.
In 2014, New York Magazine suggested, “If you still want to get a taste of the vice-filled Times Square of the 1960s and '70s, consider spending a night at Hotel Carter.” did.
USA Today reported that it was full of “cockroaches, rats, black mold, and dirt of questionable origin.”
Chetrit Group buys and sells real estate at breakneck speed and owns thousands of apartments across the United States. It previously held ownership of the Chelsea Hotel at 550 Madison Avenue and an unfinished hotel on West 34th Street.
The company is also embroiled in legal battles in several other areas. The company faces possible foreclosure on two downtown office towers and recently narrowly avoided foreclosure on a downtown residential development site before renegotiating loans.
