Ian Schrager is working on a partnership in the West Village that should upscale a dilapidated block opposite Pier 40.
The inventor of cheap-chic boutiques, who has made no secret of his interest in developing more hotels in the city, is negotiating to develop a site at 357 West St. on the south side of Leroy Street that is currently zoned for about 89,000 square feet.
The former home of the Terminal Diner, its inhabitants include the West Side Gentleman’s Club, a glass store and a car wash.
The site’s owners, led by Richard Mack of Area Partners, paid $34 million in July 2007, and have a $17 million mortgage. With the financial world cratering shortly after the purchase, the site has been in limbo.
Now, condo land prices are popping at well over $400 a foot so it is no surprise that Mack finally decided to go with the development flow.
Eric Michael Anton and Ron Solarz at Brookfield Financial were hired to market the site, but it seems that Schrager will come in and work with Mack to develop the project. Whether it will be a Public hotel or a Public condo or other brand is yet to be revealed.
The parties either declined comment or did not respond to requests for comment, other than to insist that no contract is signed but that Mack is “working” with Schrager to do something together.
Mack is no stranger to Schrager. When his Area company was under the Apollo moniker, Mack helped developed the Delano in Florida and the Clift in San Francisco, and recapitalized the Royalton and Morgans hotels.
Schrager has been active again in the city. He recently bought 215 Chrystie St., aka 10 Stanton St., with Ruby Schron. It is expected to become a Public hotel with condos.
The adjacent Sperone Westwater gallery challenged the zoning process claiming it needed more review and is too high for the area.
Building Department records show the Gary Handel design as a 350-foot tall, 26-story project with 388 rooms, including 11 residential apartments, with a duplex and a triplex on the top floors and a pool and terrace on the 17th floor.
In this town, everyone is partners with everyone. Schron and Steve Witkoff are partners in the office portion of the Woolworth Building, and Witkoff is currently completing a deal for Schrager’s Marriott Edition luxury hotel brand at his 701 Seventh Ave. site in Times Square.
An Edition is also being built out at the Clock Tower by Madison Square Park, which Schrager had earlier intended to redevelop with Aby Rosen. Schrager and Rosen previously developed the luxe condos at 40 Bond St. and 50 Gramercy Park, and redeveloped the adjacent Gramercy Park Hotel.
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The Darth Vader-esque 1 Liberty St. is getting a much needed face-lift, but its owners at Brookfield Properties are taking a line from Mick Jagger and have decided to “just paint it, paint it, paint it black.”
The steel outsides of the former US Steel Building, which overlooks Zuccotti Park, are getting scraped and whitewashed.
A Brookfield spokeswoman said that’s just a primer and it will eventually get a final coat of black paint. The entire process will take 25 months and will be finished in September 2014.
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As we first reported when it was in the works, Michael Shah of DelShah Capital has now completed the purchase of 58-60 Ninth Ave. for $18.2 million from Terrence Lowenberg and Todd Cohen of Icon Group.
The Icon boys bought the buildings that house Pop Burger just a year ago for $7.75 million and hired David Schechtman of Eastern Consolidated to sell them.
DelShah has now hired Jonathan Krieger of RKF to lease the entire 10,839-square-foot retail building at $1.5 million per year on a triple net basis or just the ground and basement for $400 per foot.
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After constant pushing by Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, the Times Building is suddenly sizzling with tech giants jockeying for spaces.
Yahoo!, which has a 175,000 square-foot requirement, is touring the Times Square South Broadway building with Jones Lang LaSalle.
There is also Amazon and its up to 500,000 square-foot offices with Cresa Partners, which has been looking up- and downtown, as well as Warner Music, which is trying to sort out a spot through CBRE as it gets booted from 75 Rockefeller Center.
Facebook is also looking at taking over 200,000 square feet of the building with another Newmark Grubb Knight Frank broker, which everyone loves as it keeps the commissions in-house.
No one returned requests for comment.