Ed Scheetz, Ben Pundole and Hotel Chelsea
The Chetrit Group selected the same King & Grove Hotels brand they infused with cash last year to manage the Hotel Chelsea, Hotel Chatter reported.
King & Grove, a boutique hotel brand first launched in the Hamptons by former Morgans Hotel executives Ed Scheetz and Ben Pundole, also agreed to purchase Hotel Williamsburg, The Real Deal reported yesterday. [more]
Hotel Williamsburg
Two months after entering a deal to take over the Hotel Williamsburg, King & Grove, the boutique hotel chain backed by the Chetrit Group, is close to an agreement to buy the Brooklyn hotel, The Real Deal has learned.
King & Grove, founded by former Morgan’s Hotel Group executives Ed Scheetz and Ben Pundole, has been rapidly expanding with a recently announced deal to manage the Tides in South Beach and the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan. [more]
Sam Zell’s Equity Residential has purchased 175 Kent Avenue, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for $76 million, Crain’s reported. The condominium-turned-rental was developed by the Chetrit Group, which bought the property for $56 million in 2007. It was not clear why it chose to sell the project, which leased up after only six months. It may have been less profitable than the developer expected after it converted to rental, Crain’s speculated. Aptsandlofts.com is the exclusive marketing agent for the building, at North 4th Street. Renting commenced in March 2011, with studios for $2,343 a month, one-bedrooms starting at $2,756 and two-bedrooms at $3,413. [more]
Hotel ChelseaThe Chetrit Group has filed motions to evict 10 longtime tenants from the Hotel Chelsea, DNAinfo reported, confirming fears that the owners’ statements upon purchasing the hotel, which indicated tenants would be allowed to stay, would prove false. The motions appeared in court records.
The landlords believe the tenants are eligible for eviction because they do not live in rent-stabilized apartments, according to Samuel Himmelstein, the lawyer representing tenants of the building, even though he has evidence that many have lived in the same unit since the 1970s. [more]
From left: Ed Scheetz and Ben Pundole of King & Grove Hotels and the Tides HotelWith funding from the Chetrit Group, two former Morgans Hotel executives are taking over a South Beach hotel, Hotel Chatter reported.
King & Grove Hotels, a boutique hotel brand founded by the former CEO of Morgans, Ed Scheetz, and Ben Pundole, Morgans’ former director of entertainment, took over the Tides Hotel on Ocean Drive in South Beach. The LLC that took over the hotel, named CG Tides, is headed by Joseph Chetrit. [more]
Real estate investor Lloyd Goldman is adding to his substantial holdings with the $10.5 million acquisition of the retail condominium at 300 East 79th Street from the building’s developer, the Chetrit Group.
Goldman’s BLDG went into contract in August and closed on the purchase of the 5,976-square-foot unit Oct. 5, city records published yesterday show.
The retail condo, with ground-floor and lower-level space and occupied by Capital One bank, is in the 34-unit, 18-story residential building at the corner of 79th Street and Second Avenue. The building was developed by the Chetrit Group and opened in 2008. [more]
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]
The Rising Dragon Chelsea Tattoo Company and the Hotel ChelseaThe first known casualty of the Chetrit Group’s renovation of Hotel Chelsea appears to be the Rising Dragon Chelsea Tattoo Company, a retail tenant on the hotel’s ground floor. According to the New York Times, while it remains unclear what the Chetrits have planned for that particular space, the hotel will get a gym and a rooftop bar.
The tattoo parlor has operated out of the hotel’s ground floor since 1997, and on a month-to-month handshake agreement with the hotel’s previous manager, Stanley Bard, since 2007. [more]
Hotel Chelsea and renovations inside the buildingHotel Chelsea residents have been complaining about dangerous conditions ever since the Chetrit Group began renovations on the famed building, and photos taken by The Real Deal show conditions are not pristine. However, according to the New York Daily News, Department of Buildings inspectors found just one minor violation in their inspection of the landmark at 222 West 23rd Street — the removal of a partition wall not mentioned in the permit. [more]
Hotel Chelsea and renovations inside the buildingFirst residents of the under-renovation Hotel Chelsea hired a lawyer, now they’ve brought on an environmental assessment team to make sure they are safe from toxins being exposed by the Chetrit’s renovation.
DNAinfo reported that the residents hired Olmsted Environmental Services to assess the renovation being done by new owners Chetrit Group and architect Gene Kaufman, and published updated photos of the damage inside the building at 222 West 23rd Street. [more]
