Out-of-state Buyer to Build Hotel After Scooping Up West Village Parking Lot for $10.25M
By Al Barbarino January 7, 2013 5:03 pm
reprintsA commercial development site at 152-154 Leroy Street in the West Village was sold in an all-cash transaction to a first-time New York City buyer for $10.25 million, and the new owner plans to build a hotel on the property, The Commercial Observer has learned.
Located between West and Washington Streets, the site currently functions as a parking lot, approximately 55 feet wide, with roughly 27,980 gross buildable square feet.
“We had gone around the city and focused on that area and Chelsea before we came up with the right land to suit his needs – he knew what he wanted,” said Elaine Tross of Halstead Property, who represented the buyer, and stated that he is from the Midwest and has built hotels elsewhere in the United States. “When we walked around he loved the feel of this area.”
Ms. Tross declined to identify the buyer by name and stated that the details of the hotel were still a work in progress.
The $300 a month currently charged per vehicle at the parking lot, equating to roughly $40,000 per year, “barely covers the taxes” on the property, said Massey Knakal Partner James Nelson, who exclusively represented the seller.
Though he stated that he has no knowledge of the development plans, Mr. Nelson agreed that a boutique hotel is among the best uses for the site, which once built would overlook Hudson River Park, which is just steps away, and boast waterfront views.
“This site drew interest from a wide variety of buyers, including those looking to build a boutique hotel, a social club, or residences if a variance was received,” he said. “This is a very high-end area surrounded by some of the most valuable real estate in the city, with some of the townhouses in the Village trading for more than those in the Upper East Side.”
The sale to an out-of-towner and first-time buyer, willing to pay approximately $366 per buildable square foot for the space, was a testament to the allure of New York City real estate to not only foreign buyers, but domestic ones as well.
“If this lot was in Cleveland, I doubt you would have a first-time buyer coming in for a property like this, especially at $10 million,” Mr. Nelson said. “That’s the beauty of New York.”
