Deadline nears for NYT building hotel bids

The former New York Times building

Africa Israel Investments has set a deadline of mid-August for bids on a new high-end hotel in the former New York Times building in Times Square, which it hopes to open by 2012, Crain’s reported. The company, which spent $200 million to completely gut the long-vacant property at 229 West 43rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth avenues, said it has received more than 70 inquiries from hotel operators looking to buy the seven floors that will be designated as hotel space in the iconic building, which once housed the Times’ printing presses and offices. Above the hotel, AFI plans to convert the top four floors — including the former boardroom — into luxury condominiums. Neal Golden and Jimmy Kuhn of Newmark Knight Frank are marketing the hotel space, and meanwhile, Robert K. Futterman is working on finding tenants for the remaining 40 percent of the retail space on the building’s lower levels, which AFI hopes will be leased up by the end of the year. [Crain’s]

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