Hidrock Properties Sells Financial District Development Site at Steep Discount

A development site one block away from the World Trade Center has sold for a significant haircut, according to New York state property records. 

Hidrock Properties sold the empty lot at 112 Liberty Street for about $21.7 million, or nearly 46 percent less than it paid for it in 2018, property records show. The buyer was an entity that shares an address with Flushing, Queens-based real estate manager Hiwin Group USA and its CEO Xiaogang Wang.

Developer Hidrock originally spent $38.5 million to acquire the property, which at the time was a five-story commercial building, according to New York YIMBY. Hidrock later demolished that structure and had planned to build a 20-story, 112,000-square-foot hotel in its place, though it’s unclear why the developer ultimately chose to sell.

Hotel occupancy in New York City still trails pre-COVID levels, which may have influenced the decision to offload the property. Yet the city’s recent focus on cracking down on short-term rentals, such as from Airbnb, has done wonders for its hotel market, with 2.2 million additional hotel room nights expected to be booked this year, according to a February report from JLL. Those additional bookings equal about $380 million in revenue for hotels this year. 

Representatives for Hidrock and Hiwin Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment.  It’s unclear who brokered the sale.

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.