After more than a decade in development limbo, the historic Hotel Bossert has a new owner.
SomeraRoad purchased the former hotel at 98 Montague Street in Brooklyn for $100 million, records show. The New York and Nashville-based developer plans to restore the building and open it as residences, according to a statement.
The seller, Beach Point Capital, provided a $71 million mortgage to SomeraRoad, according to property records. Beach Point took over the hotel from the Chetrit Group in February at a foreclosure auction, nine months after the investment management firm purchased the note against the property.
The Chetrits had hoped to work out a deal with the lender and revive plans to restore and reopen the hotel. But the debt ballooned to $177 million, sending the property to auction. Beach Point emerged as the only bidder, snapping up the decaying building with a $999,000 credit bid.
Joseph Chetrit and David Bistricer purchased the 14-story building from the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2013 and promised to restore it to its former glory, including adding 78 guest rooms, a restaurant and a rooftop bar. A year later, renovations were underway.
But plans got delayed. In 2019, Chetrit bought out Bistricer’s interest and secured a $112 million loan from Cantor Commercial Real Estate Lending. The loan was assigned to Wells Fargo a year later, when Covid arrived in New York, and went into special servicing in August 2020.
Chetrit defaulted on the loan in 2021, according to court filings; Wells Fargo initiated a foreclosure last May, claiming Chetrit owed over $126 million.
Hoteliers Ian Schrager and Ed Scheetz stepped in to possibly partner with Chetrit to rescue the hotel from foreclosure. The group sought to extend the loan with the special servicer, according to Morningstar. They planned to refinance the loan as part of a plan to relaunch it as a Public Hotel.
But that never happened. The hotel’s ownership entity was initially scheduled for a foreclosure auction in January but it was postponed several times.
Now, the building has once again changed hands — this time without grand hotel resurrection plans.
Lumber magnate Louis Bossert built the hotel in 1909; it later became known as Brooklyn’s Waldorf-Astoria. The Jehovah’s Witnesses bought the building in 1983.
SomeraRoad, founded in 2016 by Brooklyn resident Ian Ross, is no stranger to sprucing up older properties. In 2022, the firm purchased a commercial condo unit above the popular power lunch hangout Harry’s at 1 Hanover Square for $6 million and converted it to boutique offices.
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