BlackHouse’s Sean Ludwick to buy Hudson Yards strip club for $40M: sources

Developer said to be planning construction of 46-story condo-hotel on the site

550-552 West 38th Street in Midtown and Sean Ludwick (credit: Briana E. Heard)
550-552 West 38th Street in Midtown and Sean Ludwick (credit: Briana E. Heard)

Sean Ludwick, developer and managing partner at BlackHouse Development, is in contract to acquire a two-story gentlemen’s club in the Hudson Yards neighborhood in an effort to construct a 46-story condo-hotel tower on the site, The Real Deal has learned.

Ludwick signed a deal last week to pay $40 million for the property at 550-552 West 38th Street, between 10th and 11th avenues, according to sources close to the deal. The site, which currently holds strip-and-steak joint Headquarters Gentlemen’s Club, offers 106,812 as-of-right, buildable square feet, sources said.

The deal is not expected to close until December 2015, according to sources.

Lee Odell Real Estate broker Lesya Yanush, who represented both the buyer and the seller, declined comment. Ludwick also declined to comment.

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Ludwick recently started another company, Ludwick China LLC, to focus on raising capital in China to buy more real estate in Manhattan. The planned tower on West 38th Street will house 175 hotel rooms – and 15 full-floor condominium units with private elevators, sources said. Ludwick is seeking a Chinese investor for the project.

The owner of the property is Monsey, N.Y.-based landlord Louis Marolda, who bought it in 1983, records show.

Ludwick has said he is also a partner on a 47-story Hudson Yards condo-hotel tower at 462-470 11th Avenue, which is being developed by Chinese investor Kuafu Properties. A spokesperson for Siras Development, led by former BlackHouse partners Saif Sumaida and Ashwin Verma, said last month that Ludwick is no longer a development partner. Ludwick has denied this. Documents show him as a partner.