Ian Schrager Scores $310M Refi for Public Hotel on Lower East Side
By Isabelle Durso December 18, 2025 1:07 pm
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American entrepreneur and hotelier Ian Schrager has scored a major refinancing for the Public Hotel on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Commercial Observer has learned.
Schrager secured a $310 million refinance for his 28-story, 367-key hotel at 215 Chrystie Street, according to a source with knowledge of the deal. The deal closed Wednesday.
J.P. Morgan Chase provided the commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) single-asset, single-borrower (SASB) loan, while Newmark’s Jordan Roeschlaub, Jonathan Firestone, Nick Scribani and Tyler Dumon brokered the deal, sources said.
News of the deal comes roughly two years after Schrager and co-owner Steve Witkoff were in danger of losing the Public Hotel following a UCC foreclosure and notice of a public auction, as CO previously reported. The joint venture had defaulted on an $85 million loan with Värde Partners on the hotel, with an auction originally scheduled for September 2023 but delayed multiple times.
Troubles with the 2017-built Public Hotel began in 2020 when Schrager and Witkoff temporarily closed the hotel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It reopened in 2021, but with more than $60 million in debt. Madison Realty Capital and Newbond Holdings acquired the nonperforming debt in October 2022 from lenders Deutsche Bank and Aareal Bank, fully accrued to roughly $190 million.
The new refinancing, however, pays off that debt, and the owners’ business plan for 2026 includes a “reprogramming” of some of the hotels’ 10 food and beverage venues with an undisclosed “renowned restaurant operator,” the source said.
The Public Hotel, located between Stanton and East Houston streets, features several amenities for guests, including private event spaces, health and wellness programs, a rooftop bar, spas and more.
J.P. Morgan Chase declined to comment, while Ian Schrager Company and Newmark did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Commercial Mortgage Alert first reported news of the deal.
Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.
