Hidrock Realty building first hotel

Commercial real estate developer Hidrock Realty is building its first-ever hotel, a 146-room lodge in Midtown.

“We own the site and it’s the highest and best use [for it],” said Abraham Hidary, president of Hidrock, which does development, asset management and leasing brokerage.

Hidary said his company knows how to develop buildings, but not operate a hotel. So he plans to retain ownership of the parcel at 25 West 37th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, and have a large hotel operator run the business as an extended-stay hotel.

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Hidary plans on differentiating his hotel from those developed by prolific hotelier Sam Chang, who continues to erect several hotels in the area, with bigger rooms as well as kitchens, as are common in extended-stay hotels.

The existing four-story, 25,500-square-foot commercial building, built in 1925, will be cleared to make way for an 18-story hotel with an average room rate of $350 per night. The company paid $21.5 million for the site. Hidary expects construction to commence in May 2009.