BROOKLYN, NY—Motti Blau and Mendy Pfeifer of Eastern Union, a commercial real estate finance firm, together closed eight hotel transactions valued at more than $100 million over the course of 2019. Blau serves as a director with the firm and Pfeifer is a senior loan consultant.
With mortgages for hospitality assets representing an overall capacity of 717 rooms, Blau and Pfeifer’s significant volume in the hotel space this year complements their long-standing record of achievement in arranging financing for multi-family properties, according to the company.
The eight hotel closings consisted of five refinancing deals and three acquisition loans with an overall value of $100.54 million.
The refinancing deals—representing an overall subtotal of $76.45 million—included a 56-key hotel in Manhattan with a $14.2-million transaction, another Manhattan refinancing of a 38-key property for $10.5 million, a 125-key hotel in Brooklyn refinanced with $14 million, an 87-key hotel refinancing in Long Island City in the amount of $18 million, and another Long Island City hotel with 88 keys refinanced with $19.75 million.
Their three hotel acquisition loans—which totaled $24.09 million in transaction value—encompassed a Brooklyn hotel with 125 rooms with a loan value of $9.5 million, a 96-key hotel in Long Island City with $12 million in financing, and a 102-key hotel, also in Long Island City, acquired with the help of $2.59 million in financing.
On the multi-family side of the ledger, the two-man team delivered more than 50 loans.
“Motti Blau and Mendy Pfeifer’s substantial, multi-sector portfolio exemplifies the skill and versatility characteristic of the entire Eastern Union team,” said Ira Zlotowitz, founder and president, Eastern Union. “They’ve set a new professional standard for themselves this year. We expect continued, high levels of production from Motti and Mendy in the years ahead.”
An industry leader in loan volume, Eastern Union has closed $5 billion in financing over each of the last two years.