Andre Balazs and the Cooper Square Hotel

Hotelier Andre Balazs is planning to reconfigure the Cooper Square Hotel into a “cost-conscious… center of a community,” and not a nuisance for its neighbors, he told the Wall Street Journal, following “mistakes” made by the hotel’s previous owner.

“I know the guys who built [the Cooper Square Hotel] originally, and I thought they miscalculated a bunch of things,” said Balazs, who purchased the hotel at 25 Cooper square, in November 2011 from Westport Capital Partners and has made plans to turn the property into a more subdued version of his first Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District. [more]

Closings have begun at 41 Bond Street, DDG Partners’ seven-unit condominium building in Noho that quickly sold out after hitting the market in June, Joe McMillan, CEO of DDG, told The Real Deal today.

The first unit to close, a second-floor pad, sold for $5.5 million, or $2,100 per square foot, according to public records filed with the city today. All in all, apartments in the building will close for an average of $2,500 per square foot, McMillan said. A second unit has already closed, but not yet appeared in city records, and two more are scheduled to close soon, McMillan said.

“We always anticipated the building would sell very well,” McMillan said. [more]

With his deal to buy the Cooper Square Hotel set to close today, the New York Post reported that Andre Balazs will transform the hotel into the Standard East Village. Balazs will spruce up the 105 rooms, renovate the public space and redo the recently opened restaurant on the 21-story building’s ground floor, now called the Trilby.

Rumors of Balazs’ take over of the hotel first surfaced in August and were confirmed in September when he applied to renew the liquor license at the hotel. He took control of the hotel less than a year after Westport Capital Partners bought it for $70.9 million. [more]

From left: Hotelier Andre Balazs, Neil Gronowetter, chairman of Multifamily Investor and 5 Beekman Street

An independent Manhattan broker who says he brought famed hotelier Andre Balazs to buy the 10-story building 5 Beekman Street in Lower Manhattan, claims that the sellers Bonjour Capital and Chetrit Group are refusing to pay him a 1 percent commission, a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court yesterday shows.

The broker, Neil Gronowetter, chairman of his single-broker shop Multifamily Investor, says in July 2010 he introduced Balazs to representatives of Bonjour Capital, who promised him verbally that he would receive a 1 percent commission, the lawsuit says.

Balazs is reportedly in contract to buy the 128,000-square-foot property built in 1883, which Bonjour and the Chetrits planned to convert to a 200-room hotel after buying it for $61 million in 2008. [more]

Andre Balazs and the Cooper Square HotelHotelier Andre Balazs has officially taken over the Cooper Square Hotel, EV Grieve reported, citing community board documents that show the nightlife magnate is applying for a liquor license transfer.

Balazs, who owns the Standard hotel in the Meatpacking District, was rumored to be taking over the hotel last month — just eight months after it changed hands for $70.9 million. But buyers, Westport Capital Partners, put the 21-story East Village hotel, off of Cooper Square between East 5th and 6th streets, on the market with Eastdil Secured brokers Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies. [more]

New York City hotelier and residential developer Andre Balazs is reportedly adding another hotel to his ever-expanding portfolio in the form of the Cooper Square Hotel at 25 Cooper Square near Astor Place. According to Hotel Chatter, Balazs could take control of the property as early as Sept 1.

A representative for the hotel declined to comment on the prospective sale, but staffers are already aware of the takeover, according to a tipster.

Westport Capital Partners, the mezzanine lender that took over the hotel in a debt restructuring deal valued at $70.9 million late last year, tapped Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies of Eastdil Secured to market the 21-story hotel earlier this year. [more]

Susan Bloomberg and the penthouse at One Kenmare Square

The Mayor’s ex must really believe in the recovery of luxury real estate prices in New York City.
After a one-and-a-half-year hiatus, Susan Bloomberg’s One Kenmare Square penthouse has returned to the market with a new broker and a $1.5 million price bump.

The former wife of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, whose primary residence is a 26-acre horse farm in North Salem, N.Y., is now asking $13 million for her 4,472-square-foot spread, which comprises the entire top floor of the 210 Lafayette Street condominium and has some 4,031 square feet of outdoor space. The “double penthouse,” as the listing by Halstead Property broker Arlene Weidberg describes it, is actually two units for which Bloomberg paid roughly $10.3 million in 2006. Together, they have five bedrooms, a private rooftop, and two of pretty much everything else: kitchens, terraces, fireplaces and powder rooms.  [more]

After months of rumors, the buyer paying upwards of $80 million to take over the legendary Hotel Chelsea has been revealed as New York real estate developer Joseph Chetrit. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Chelsea’s longtime tenants will be happy to know that Chetrit is not planning a condominium conversion, as some had speculated that a new owner would. Instead, he’ll renovate and modernize the landmark 222 West 23rd Street building, known for housing artists like Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Jim Morrison over the course of its 127-year history. [more]

Possible contenders Ian Schrager (top) and Andre Balazs with the Hotel ChelseaA mystery buyer has agreed to buy the Hotel Chelsea for more than $80 million, triumphing over a pool of luminaries that for months have fueled intense speculation about the future of the landmark West 23rd Street property, Eastdil Secured broker Douglas Harmon confirmed to the Wall Street Journal. But the speculation doesn’t end here. Previously reported front-runners for the takeover of the legendary hotel included hoteliers Ian Schrager and Andre Balazs, former manager Stanley Bard and Tristar Capital’s David Edelstein. (On Monday, a tenant-written blog reported that Edelstein had emerged the victor, which a hotel spokesperson quickly denied). Today, the rumor mill churned out a few fresh names, including Aby Rosen, pop singer Marc Anthony and Google. [more]

The Hotel Chelsea and David Edelstein

Is the Hotel Chelsea sale a done deal? The rumor mill has been churning out a slew of new reports today about the impending transfer of power at the legendary West 23rd Street landmark, and tenant-written blog Living With Legends has heard that Tristar Capital head David Edelstein has emerged the winner. The Post had reported last month that Edelstein, a former cab driver and the developer behind the W Hotels in South Beach and London, was the current front-runner for the 250-room hotel, and that he was likely convert the property to a condominium. [more]