CIM Group, a real estate investor, has won a foreclosure auction that allows it to take control of New York’s Trump Soho hotel and condominium.
CIM Group, also the co-developer of 432 Park, served as a lender to developers the Sapir Organization and Bayrock Group, who sold less than a third of the 391 units in the building, according to the Wall Street Journal. Due to the slow sales, the developers defaulted on the junior loan in June, according to the Journal.
Buyers of the units at 246 Spring Street can use the apartments for up to 120 days a year, according to the newspaper. The rest of the time, they serve as hotel rooms.
Trump Management will stay on as operator of the building, but doesn’t own it.
“A luxury condo-hotel in New York is not a feasible business proposition,” Brian Halberg, a real estate attorney with Squire Patton Boggs, told the newspaper. “It’s too expensive to build, too expensive to operate, and too expensive for purchasers.” [WSJ] — Claire Moses