About 29 units in Ed Scheetz’s Hotel Chelsea will get just under five months of free rent while the historic building undergoes a renovation, according to a lawyer for the building’s tenants’ association.
Residents of those units will also be put up at a hotel close to The 222 West 23rd Street property while their apartments are redone, and will receive $60 a day for meals, Janet Kalson, the lawyer who struck a deal with Scheetz, told the Wall Street Journal.
Scheetz, the CEO of luxury hotel company King & Grove, was a minority owner in the hotel until August, when he purchased a majority interest from the Chetrit Group and David Bistricer’s Clipper Equity. The acquisition was part of an overall split of the longtime partnership between the three parties, as The Real Deal reported. Scheetz also paid $97 million for Chetrit’s stake in the Astor Place hotel project, at 708 Broadway, earlier this month.
After the rent-free months, tenants will enjoy a 20 percent discount on rent until the building-wide renovations no longer affect them, according to the Journal. Moreover, any renovations to the building and units will not cause rent increases down the line, according to the agreement with the tenants’ association, the Journal said. [WSJ] – Hiten Samtani