The owners of a run-down and long-vacant hotel dubbed the “black hole of Times Square” are allegedly hundreds of millions of dollars behind on loans linked to the property — and their lenders are seeing red.
USA Today reported it was full of “roaches, rats, black mold and stains of dubious origin.”
The Carter, originally a respectable budget hotel, was never a crown jewel. It was the site of four murders over the years. Among them, aspiring model Kristine Yitref’s strangled, beaten and naked body was found under a bed in 2007.
A manager at Los Tacos No. 1 across the street, who didn’t want his name used, said, “It’s bad. Junkies go behind the wood fence at night. They do business there. The building is closed so nobody stops them.”
The Chetrits bought the 700-room, low-end inn for $192 million in 2015. Although they planned a major renovation, work stalled, leaving a jumble of scaffolds and construction fences around the building for the past several years.
Asked whether the Carter fell within the boundaries of the Times Square Alliance Business Improvement District, organization president said, “Unfortunately, yes.”
The case doesn’t involve the primary mortgage on the property, which opened as the Hotel Dixie in 1930 and underwent numerous ownership changes.
Joseph Chetrit’s lawyer, Leo Jacobs, told Crain’s he’d try to postpone the February court appearance by up to two months. He blamed the loan situation on “market volatility.”
The company is embroiled in legal battles on several other fronts as well. It faces possible foreclosure on two downtown office towers and recently narrowly staved off foreclosure on a residential development site downtown before renegotiating a loan.
