Fashion 26 hotel sells for $120M

The development firm Infinity Group has sold the 280-room Midtown South hotel Fashion 26 that opened this spring to a Maryland real estate investment firm for $119.9 million.

An investment fund affiliated with RLJ Development went into contract in August and closed on the purchase of the 21-story hotel located at 152 West 26th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, Sept. 22, city property records published yesterday show.

RLJ, which owns 120-hotels nationwide, also owns a Hilton Garden Inn at 63 West 35th Street and a Marriott in East Elmhurst near LaGuardia Airport, the company website says.

Steven Kassin, a principal with Infinity Group, built the hotel after purchasing the site from Gary Barnett’s Extell Development in 2007 for $28 million.

The sale price translates into a cost of about $428,000 per room.

The news comes a week after the sale of the Hotel Roger Williams, a 193-unit hotel at 131 Madison Avenue at 31st Street, for $90 million, or about $466,000 per key.

Infinity Group opened the hotel in April under the Wyndham flag, with reported room rates of $299. Following the sale of the property, the hotel was no longer under the Wyndham brand. Rates on the hotel’s website show prices ranging from $239 per night to $299 per night.

Will Obeid, president and CEO of hotel owner Gemini Real Estate Advisors, who was not involved in the transaction, said the sale showed hospitality values were stabilizing in Manhattan.

“It’s definitely not a distressed price and indicates that the market is returning to some semblance of normalcy,” he said in an e-mail.

RLJ, Infinity Group and Wyndham did not immediately respond to a request for comment.