Lightstone secures $330M in financing for new Times Sq. hotel

David Lichtenstein’s Lightstone Group secured $330 million in financing for the conversion of a 16-story Times Square office building into a new hotel.

Lightstone received a $205 million construction loan from lender Square Mile Capital Management and another $125 million in capital from two unnamed institutional investors for its development of a Marriott Moxy Hotel at 485 Seventh Avenue.

The firm acquired the 235,000-square-foot Garment District office building, located between West 36th and West 37th streets, from the Eretz Group for $182 million in 2014.

The property was originally constructed in 1907 as a nearly 1,900-unit single-room occupancy building, according to the New York Observer, before being converted into retail and office space in the 1980s.

The new hotel will be the first under the Moxy brand to open in the U.S., though two more locations in New Orleans and Tempe, Ariz., are expected to open this year. The brand’s only current location is in Milan, Italy.

After selling 485 Seventh Avenue to the Lightstone Group, the Eretz Group’s Abe Talassazan filed suit against Lightstone claiming he was locked out of his office and synagogue in the building despite assurances that Eretz could remain at the property. [NYO] – Rey Mashayekhi