ICBC (USA) provides a $35 million USD loan the 61-27 186th Street Refinancing Project

Project narrative

On August 12, 2021, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (USA) N.A (ICBC (USA)) entered into a $35,000,000 USD loan agreement with Mayflower Business Group, LLC — a New York-incorporated hotel company headquartered in New York City, New York and owned by husband-and-wife hotel developers Xiaozhuang Ge and Weihong Hu — and Mayflower Wenyu LLC — a New York-incorporated company with the same ownership — for the 61-27 186th Street Refinancing Project. The loan was secured by (i.e. collateralized against) a mortgage on 61-27 186th Street charged by Mayflower Business and Mayflower Wenyu and an assignment of leases and rents associated with the property charged by Mayflower Business. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to refinance the Wyndham Garden Fresh Meadows Flushing, a 142-room hotel with a total square footage of 76,367 located at 61-27 186th Street in the Fresh Meadows neighborhood of Queens, New York City, New York. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wyndham Garden Fresh Meadows Flushing was used to house inmates from the Rikers Island prison in New York City under a contrast. Such process was criticized by lawmakers as opaque. In April 2022, Queens elected official sent a letter to New York City Mayor Eric Adams calling for a cancellation of the contract a return to the hotel's original operations. Owner Weihong Hu had been a major donor to Adams's 2021 mayoral campaign, leading to accusations that Adams ensured that the contracts, worth millions, for Hu's hotel were renewed (six contracts renewed four times, bringing $6.2 million USD a year in income). Reports that a top staffer of Adams as well as Adams's son stayed at the hotel during the contract in 2022 also circulated. In early 2025, Hu was indicted for a kickback scheme, with allegations that Hu bribed the chief executive officer of Exodus Transitional Community (which originally held the contract to house people transitioning off Rikers). Later, in March 2025, a review by New York City Comptroller uncovered alleged corruption (nepotism and graft) with the contracts with Wyndam Garden Fresh Meadows, with greater prices than other options, use of a food vendor related to Hu, and improper contract increases.