From left: Fashion 26, the Doubletree Metropolitan and the Milford Plaza

The recent uptick in occupancies and room rates at New York’s hotels have helped spur an increase in deal activity and values. After only two lodgings sold in 2009, there were 13 deals made last year, worth $1.4 billion. Three deals worth a total of $651.5 million took place in the fourth quarter, according to data provided by Massey Knakal Realty Services to the Wall Street Journal. Hotel prices on a price-per-room basis declined to $407,286 in 2009 from their peak of $586,544 in 2006, according to Massey Knakal. [more]

Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson’s development company has picked up its third New York City hotel in three years with the purchase of the Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel in Midtown for $335 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The 755-room, Morris Lapidus-designed property, originally built as the Summit hotel by the Tisch family in 1961, last traded for $110.5 million in 2003. The seller group, which consists of Highgate Holdings, Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall Real Estate Funds and Rockwood Capital, had put $35 million into renovations since then. [more]

Fashion 26 hotel

The development firm Infinity Group has sold the 280-room Midtown South hotel Fashion 26 that opened this spri [more]

The Landmarks Preservation Commission announced today that it has granted 104 West 40th Street, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, landmark protected status. Also, after month of anticipation, the garment district’s new hotel, Fashion 26 – A Wynham Hotel, was slated to open today at 152 West 26th Street on the corner of Seventh Avenue. Click here for more. TRD [more]

From the November issue: When Fashion 26 opens its doors this December, one young hotelier may
have white knuckles: The spot is the first that Steven Kassin, the
24-year-old Infinity Group principal, has led from start to finish.
“It’s my baby,” Kassin said of the Garment District hotel at 152
West 26th Street, on the corner of Seventh Avenue. “I’m young and I
can’t afford to mess up.”
Kassin, who’s been working with the Infinity Group since graduating
with his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from New York University at
age 20, is heading up the $90 million project, in partnership with CPI,
Citigroup’s real estate private equity group. Rooms start at $275 per
night.