When the owners of the former Knickerbocker Hotel divided the structure into two floors of retail condominiums and 14 stories of hotel rooms, they had larger plans in mind. According to the Wall Street Journal the sold the remaining building for $109 million to Texas-based FelCor Lodging Trust, which plans to continue the property’s conversion from Class B office space to a 330-room luxury hotel.
As The Real Deal reported in December, a partnership of Crown Acquisitions, Ashkenazy Acquisitions, Chicago-based Walton Street Capital and Texas-based Highgate Holdings filed to split the building into one hotel condo and two retail condos. The joint venture acquired the property for $180.5 million in July 2010.
FelCor, which last year bought the Royalton and Morgans hotels from the Morgans Hotels Group, plans to spend about $115 million to finish the conversion by late 2013. The hotel be operated independently by Highgate, which retained a 5 percent stake, under the Knickerbocker name. It will have a restaurant, a rooftop bar, meeting rooms, a fitness center and guest rooms averaging about 400 square feet.
The hotel, at 1466 Broadway, is just one of many redevelopment projects beautifying West 42nd Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues. [WSJ]