HNA Property lands Massey Knakal’s first big loan

Chinese firm to use funds to refinance debt on Cassa Hotel

From left: Andrew Posil, 70 West 45th Street and a room in the Cassa Hotel
From left: Andrew Posil, 70 West 45th Street and a room in the Cassa Hotel

Massey Knakal’s Capital Services division has lent HNA Property Holdings, a subsidiary of a Chinese airline, $80 million to refinance its debt on a hotel property near Times Square.

The loan is Massey Knakal’s largest since the firm launched its capital services division in 2011, and comes six months after the addition of hotel specialist Andrew Posil.

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HNA Property, which is a unit of Hainan Airlines, picked up the Cassa Hotel, located at 70 West 45th Street and Avenue of the Americas, in 2012 for $130 million. The hotel, which occupies the bottom 28 floors of the building, was nearly complete at the time and a restaurant had just opened.

Pacific Coast Capital Partners agreed to provide a $65 million senior loan to finance HNA’s acquisition in early 2012, after developer Assa Properties filed for bankruptcy protection for the project the previous April. Waterscape Resorts, an affiliate of Assa, said at the time that contractors and subcontractors had filed around $20 million in mechanic’s liens against the condominium-hotel in order to guarantee their payments, which hindered sales and led the developer to default. [WSJ, 2nd item]Julie Strickland