Spitzer to put up hotel on West 35th Street site

Documents reveal former governor's project expanding substantially

From left: 511 West 35th Street and Eliot Spitzer
From left: 511 West 35th Street and Eliot Spitzer

Eliot Spitzer is planning to build a hotel with a retail component on the Hudson Yards development site his firm snapped up last year for $88 million. And the former New York governor is apparently willing to shell out millions more for a bigger building.

Spitzer disclosed his plans in an application the company filed recently to purchase an additional 138,250 square feet of bonus development rights from the city for his property at 511 West 35th Street, which runs block-through to 36th Street between 10th and 11th avenues.

The firm will now pay $125.36 per buildable square foot – totaling $17.33 million – to the Hudson Yards District Improvement Fund. That fund finances improvements such as the No. 7 train extension to the west side, as well as Hudson Park & Boulevard. The park runs mid-block between 10th and 11th avenues–  from the Related Companies’ Hudson Yards project — to 42nd Street.

Spitzer declined to comment, but if approved he would have the option of purchasing another 103,688 square feet of bonus rights from the Eastern Rail Yards.

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That would bring the total buildable area to 414,750 square feet. A little more than 100,000 square feet of that amount would have to be used for residential.

While the price of the rights bought from the rail yard is determined by an appraisal of their value at the time of application, the cost of the additional square footage purchased through the improvement is fixed each year.

The city set the original price at $100 per square foot back in 2005, and that figure rises each year based on the consumer price index. The price climbed from $122.78 per square foot August 1.

As of 2012, the Hudson Yards Infrastructure Corporation had collected $88.1 million from the sale of bonus rights in the district.