Williamsburg Hotel Is Latest Bankruptcy In Battered New York Lodging Industry

Developers behind the Williamsburg Hotel, an 147-room boutique hotel located in the gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood, have placed the property into bankruptcy, the latest hotel tipped into chapter 11 during the coronavirus pandemic.

A company behind the hotel, 96 Wythe Acquisition LLC, filed for chapter 11 protection Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., amid a dispute with a lender that has said the developers defaulted on a multimillion-dollar loan used to complete construction of the hotel in 2017.

The bankruptcy filing is the latest sign of trouble for New York City’s hotel industry, hit hard by the pandemic. The Williamsburg Hotel follows the fates of Manhattan’s historic Martinique hotel and Brooklyn’s Tillary Hotel, which filed for chapter 11 protection in December.

The Williamsburg Hotel, like other hotels in New York City, has struggled during the coronavirus pandemic to generate enough revenue to both operate in the black and pay down existing debt, said Bradford Cohen, a lawyer defending 96 Wythe Acquisition against claims by its lender.

The hotel will continue operating as normal during the chapter 11 case, which it hopes to use to restructure its debt on the building and pay creditors, he said.