Two Brooklyn hotel projects file for bankruptcy in one week

Renderings of 159 Broadway in Williamsburg and Tillary Hotel at 85 Flatbush Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn (Photos via Stonehill Taylor; The Tillary Hotel)

Two Brooklyn hotel projects with ties to Isaac Hager’s Cornell Realty Management have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the span of a week.

The owners of a planned 26-story hotel and residential tower at 159 Broadway in Williamsburg — 159 Broadway Member and WB Bridge Hotel — have filed for bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg News. One of the owners, 159 Broadway Member, shares an address with Cornell Realty. The 235-room project, situated across the street from Peter Luger Steakhouse, was set to open in 2021. Construction had already begun on the building, which was also set to include residential space.

And late last week, 85 Flatbush RHO Mezz, which is reportedly to be the owner of Tillary Hotel in Downtown Brooklyn, filed for bankruptcy.

Cornell Realty, in partnership with developer Lipa Rubin, purchased the 174-room hotel and 64-unit apartment building at 85 Flatbush Avenue Extension in September 2019. But the property faced foreclosure about a year later because of the pandemic-driven downturn that devastated the hospitality industry.

The ownership has been apparently transferred to 85 Flatbush RHO Mezz, whose address is in care of GC Realty Advisors in Hollywood, Florida, according to the Chapter 11 petition filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. [Bloomberg News] — Akiko Matsuda