Premier Equities Sells Hotel in NoMad to Azora Exan for $48m

Premier Equities sold the hotel at 1141 Broadway to Azora Exan for $47.8 million earlier this month.

The Miami-based firm purchased what was once the Flatiron Hotel, Crain’s reported on Monday. The property is leased by Sonder, the troubled global hospitality group that rents rooms which combine elements of apartments and hotels.

Premier listed the building last May, seeking $60 million at first. Four Newmark brokers including Adam Spies and Marcella Fasulo represented the seller.

Sonder leases eight of the building’s 10 floors. The building’s ground floor is occupied by luxury skincare company Malin + Goetz and a gelato shop. Apotheke Mixology, a cocktail bar, leases the rooftop.

Exan adds the property to its almost $174 million portfolio in New York City. The firm plans to hold on to the building, and expects its current tenants to stay. It also anticipates that any renovations on the property will be done by the tenants, an Exan representative told Crain’s.

Exan owns mostly residential properties in New York, including Brooklyn’s The Bergen, 1 Boerum Place and 50 Orange Street. It also owns 82 West 12th Street in Manhattan, and retail space at 15 William Street, also in Manhattan.

Premier, which was co-founded by Yaron Jacobi and Uzi Ben Abraham, purchased the property for $40.3 million in 2019, after the property went into bankruptcy under previous owner Jagdish Vaswani. It initially sought $60 million for the hotel in mid-2023, according to previous reporting by The Real Deal. The hotel is on Broadway between West 26th and West 27th street in the NoMad neighborhood.

Premier partnered with Sonder, which manages short-term rentals, shortly after purchasing the property. Sonder re-opened the hotel in April 2021. According to its website, Sonder operates around 9,000 units globally, and has served over one million guests.

Sonder shares plummeted earlier this year, after it said that its financial statements from 2022 and 2023 “should no longer be relied upon,” according to reporting from the San Francisco Business Times.

– Elisa Muyl