A Weehawken, New Jersey hotel has seen its valuation slashed by 45 percent in the last decade — from $128 million to $70.8 million, according to Morningstar Credit.
The hotel, a Sheraton, has been taken over by a receiver who is negotiating the sale of the property.
The borrower, called River-PW Hotel Limited Partnership, took out $80 million against the property in a 2015 refinancing.
But the pandemic hit hard. The hotel was union-managed with 343 rooms, located just south of the Lincoln Tunnel to Midtown Manhattan.
In November 2020, the borrower missed its payment and the loan was transferred to special servicing. By the beginning of 2021, Hartz Financial Group, which sponsored the loan, said it would no longer support the hotel and would cooperate with a “friendly foreclosure process,” according to information provided by Morningstar. A suit was filed in March and a receiver appointed by the court the next month.
Through 2021, the hotel averaged about 66 percent occupancy, but with full occupancy on the weekends.
By the summer of 2022, the receiver was listing the property for sale. But bids didn’t come in as hoped, and the building was delisted early the next year. Cash flow had improved though, and had begun to cover expenses.
Since then, the building was put back on the market and the court approved a buyer, with a sale expected this year, according to Morningstar Credit. The appraised value has fallen 14 percent since May 2024.
It wouldn’t be the only Weehawken hotel to trade hands in recent years. In 2023, Veris Residential sold off a Residence Inn and an Envue hotel for $97 million, as the firm hoped to exit its commercial portfolio.
Neither Hartz Financial nor a lawyer representing the borrower immediately responded to requests for comment.
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