Trending
Japanese company behind world’s first robot hotel buys Midtown Wingate for $44M
Hotel investor Li Hui Lo sold the building to H.I.S. Hospitality
The new owner of the Wingate Midtown Manhattan is a Japanese company famous for building the world’s first robot hotel.
Investor Li Hui Lo has sold the Garment District property at 235 West 35th Street to H.I.S. Hospitality for $44 million, according to property records. Tatsuya Fukuda, the director of sales and marketing at the company, was the signatory on the deed.
Lo bought the 17-story, 92-key hotel for $37.2 million in 2015. Lo and H.I.S. Hospitality could not immediately be reached for comment.
H.I.S. is known for opening the world’s first robot hotel in 2015 near Nagasaki, called the Henn-na Hotel. It is partially staffed by robots who resemble humans and can perform tasks like making coffee and carrying luggage.
A recent analysis from The Real Deal found that hotel construction in New York City is experiencing a boom. The number of units in the construction pipeline has more than doubled from about 8,000 in 2013 to more than 20,000 today, and 20 percent of all dwelling units under construction are for hotels.
The city is on track to approve a rezoning to allow for more commercial space in the hotel’s Garment District neighborhood by the end of the year.