Demolition Begins To Make Way For 23-Story Lower East Side Hotel
By Billy Gray January 31, 2013 5:41 pm
reprintsConstruction crews are currently dismantling a two-story building at 180 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, making way for an eventual Hotel Indigo that will rise 23 stories from the ground and bring 295 new hotel rooms to the transformed neighborhood.
Local bloggers have kept an eye on the address since 2009 during the protracted construction of the low-lying property now largely reduced to rubble. Rumors that a mini-mall would fill the space worried preservationists, but 180 Orchard Street lay vacant for years until it was announced in May of 2011 that Hotel Indigo, a “branded boutique” chain owned by Intercontinental Hotels Group, would move in.
The development is the result of a joint venture between Brack Capital Real Estate–also behind the James and CitizenM hotels–and IHG, who paid $46 million for the property nearly two years ago, according to Crain’s. The hotel will include a restaurant, bar, fitness center and outdoor pool, joining other Lower East Side lodgings like The Hotel on Rivington and Thompson LES that cater to out of town guests while attempting to lure locals with food and nightlife.
There are currently two Hotel Indigo outposts in New York City: one in Chelsea and the other in Fort Greene. The Lower East Side property is expected to open in 2014.
Representatives for IHG and Brack Capital could not be reached for comment.
