Morris Moinian to sell site of stalled hotel project

Developer seeks around $95M for vacant Sixth Avenue lot

Morris Moinian and 1150 6th Avenue (Credit: Noam Galai/Getty Images, Google Maps)
Morris Moinian and 1150 6th Avenue (Credit: Noam Galai/Getty Images, Google Maps)

Four years after receiving approval to build a 26-story, 310-key hotel at 1150 Sixth Avenue, developer Morris Moinian has decided to sell the vacant site instead.

Moinian’s firm, Fortuna Realty, has hired a JLL team led by Bob Knakal to market the lot, the New York Post reported. Moinian had told the Post in October “we’ll be focusing on Sixth Avenue next year” after getting other projects off his plate.

The midblock site between West 44th and West 45th streets is “a great development site with approved plans to build a hotel there which a new owner could use or not,” Knakal said.

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Moinian acquired the property in 2012 for $39 million, and had also considered constructing an office building on the site before deciding on a Ismael Leyva–designed hotel. “Locations like this do not come by often,” Moinian told the Wall Street Journal at the time.

The developer, who is the younger brother of developer Joseph Moinian, is seeking a price “in the mid-$90 millions,” and has already received several offers, Knakal said.

Things have gone from bad to worse for hotels lately. Even before the coronavirus pandemic dealt a major blow to the industry across the country, New York City’s hotel market faced declining room rates and a booming pipeline of new supply which made it more difficult for many hotel owners to meet debt obligations. [NYP] — Kevin Sun