News
A DIAMOND IN TIMES SQUARE
January 20, 2011
| Another ball has dropped at the intersection of 42nd and Broadway—DiamondRock Hospitality entered into an agreement to acquire aTimes Square hotel to be developed by Walton Street Capital andHighgate Holdings, which will total between $112M and $135Mwhen its finished in 2013. |
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| The address of the hotel wasn't released, but it so happens that this past summer, Highgate, Ashkenazy Acquisitions, and Crown Acquisitions bought the 300k SF Knickerbocker Hotel (aka 6 Times Square, which sits on the southeast corner of 42nd St) and an adjacent 10k SF lot for $180.5M, with plans to build an upscale hotel. (We feel like Dr. House just solving a case.) Upon completion by the third-party developer, the hotel is expected to have 250 to 300 guest rooms, which can increase to 400 with certain permits, approvals, and consents. If so, the contractual purchase price could be as high as $178M, or $445k per guest room. The commitment coincides with DiamondRock’s offering of 11M shares, priced at $12.15/shareyesterday, with some of the proceeds earmarked for the $20M deposit on the Times Square asset, its fourth hotel in NY. |
