Asset management firm closes on future Herald Square hotel site

Kansas-based hotel and asset management firm Lodgeworks, manager of the Sierra Suites Hotel Collection and Aloft hotels among others, has closed on its purchase of a commercial office building at 45-47 West 38th Street for $16 million, according to public records filed with the city today.

Lodgeworks plans to open a hotel on the site in the next two years, Roy Baker, senior vice president of the company, said, though he declined to elaborate further on plans. The purchase appears to be Lodgeworks’ first in Manhattan, according to its website.

There were four separate New York-based sellers listed on record, including a company that appears to be hotel chain Howard Johnson, working under the name Utica Avenue Hotel LLC, which held a 70.8 percent interest in the property. Howard Johnson was not immediately available for comment.

Just a few blocks from Herald Square, Lodgeworks’ new project won’t be short of competition. The Fairfield Inn + Suites, the Americana Inn and the Strand hotels are all within a few blocks radius.

Lodge has been somewhat in flux in the last few months. Hyatt hotels recently made a tentative agreement to purchase a few extended-stay hotels from Lodge, but then disclosed in a filing last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it has revised its agreement, dropping the number of hotels involved in the deal to 20 from 24 and lowering the overall price to $661 million from $802 million.