Toby Moskovits’ Williamsburg Hotel enters bankruptcy

Toby Moskovits’ distressed Williamsburg Hotel has entered into bankruptcy.

Heritage Equity Partners, under the LLC 96 Wythe Acquisition, filed for Chapter 11 protection Tuesday for the 147-room hotel at 96 Wythe Avenue, according to a filing in New York’s Southern District federal court in Manhattan.

The filing lists assets between $50 million and $100 million and liabilities just shy of $80 million. The largest creditor is Benefit Street Partners, which provided Heritage with a $68 million loan in 2017.

Moskovits could not be immediately reached for comment.

Real estate consultant David Goldwasser of FIA Capital Partners is listed as the hotel’s chief restructuring officer. He was also the restructuring officer for Cornell Realty Management’s Tillary Hotel in Downtown Brooklyn when it filed for bankruptcy in December.

Goldwasser was not immediately available to comment.

While hotels have taken a battering from the coronavirus, the Williamsburg Hotel’s troubles predate the pandemic.

Heritage defaulted on its $68 million mortgage in 2019, and a New York state court approved a request by Benefit Street Partners to put the hotel into receivership. The dispute escalated in early 2020, with Benefit Street alleging that the court-appointed receiver allowed Moskovits to retain control of the hotel’s finances.