By: Marty Raminoff
A once trendy, long vacant hotel in Murray Hill just sold.
As reported by Crain’s NY, the former W Hotel at 130 E. 39th St. and Lexington Avenue, was sold for $50 million. Property records showed the transaction on Thursday, with the closing date listed as Dec 30. The 15-story property was sold by Colonnade Properties, a Florida-based developer which had purchased the hotel back in 2010 for $49 million, from Starwood Hotels. The identity of the new buyer is not known, as it was purchased by a limited liability company, which is a popular way of shielding one’s identity.
The prewar redbrick structure in Midtown Manhattan was last operated as part of the St. Giles hotel chain. Owned by IGB Berhad, a Malaysian real estate conglomerate focused on Asia, the chain has other hotels in Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Manila, Sydney, central London, and the Heathrow Airport area. The NY hotel had boasted 199 rooms spanning 15 floors. The hotel closed in 2018 for renovations, but never reopened, likely having been interrupted by the pandemic. Since being shuttered, the corner property has been slapped with multiple complaints, regarding homeless encampments set up beneath its scaffolding at the entrance, as per city Department of Buildings records.
As per Crain’s, the building was first built as the Peter Cooper Hotel, back in 1927. A few decades later, it changed hands and became the Doral Towers, changing to house mainly long-term residents. By the 1980’s, the property underwent a major renovation and restoration, and in the 1990s the hotel was operated as Hotel Tuscany. By the year 2000, the property became a posh W hotel, being operated under the umbrella of Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Starwood had just launched the W brand the previous year, and also opened up another W Hotel nearby — a brick Doral hotel at 541 Lexington Ave., at East 50th Street. That hotel also changed hands, and then was shuttered permanently for the COVID-19 pandemic. At its prime the W hotel at 130 E. 39th St. once won acclaim for its lobby-level nightlife, with the Lexington’s Bar cocktail lounge, as per Crain’s.
Colonnade properties, the seller in the new transaction, is a real estate company founded in 1999, which owns roughly $5 billion in real estate assets. The company “targets assets that are underperforming as a result of current economic and market conditions yet have strong long-term prospects,” according to its website. It’s success “derived from flexibility and creative vision combined with strict financial and managerial discipline”.
The company website lists assets including office towers, condo complexes, and garden-style apartments across Florida, as well as in multiple cities across the country including Boston, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, and Washington D.C. Notable company holdings include: The Aventine at Miramar which is 848-unit garden style apartment community located in Miramar, Florida; The Artech Residences, a 232-unit, 374,861 square foot waterfront residential condominium in Aventura, FL; The Douglas Entrance, a 455,520 square foot office complex in the Central Business District of Coral Gables, Fl; and 400 North Ashley Plaza, a 32-story Class A office tower located in Downtown Tampa boasting 513,507 rentable square feet of space.
Joseph Sambuco, Colonnade’s chief executive, whose name appears on closing documents did not immediately respond to Crain’s request for comment. Jeffrey Zwick and Associates, the law firm that handled the deal representing the buyer, could not be reached for comment.
