DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners put the kibosh on a Lower East Side hotel conversion plan that had been years in the making.
The Midtown-based firm is abandoning plans to create an Ace Hotel at the site of the landmarked, 12-story Jarmulowsky Bank building at 9 Orchard Road, instead opting to market the building as “creative office space,” it said a letter to industry insiders, Bowery Boogie reported.
The company is still in the midst of renovations at the 60,000-square-foot property, with plans to recreate the building’s original cupola, among other repairs.
DLJ bought the property for $36 million in late 2011. The hotel plan came at a time when Manhattan’s hospitality building boom was just getting off the ground. These days, new hotel building is way down, as is occupancy at existing properties.
In October, the developer bought 152 East 22nd Street in Gramercy Park for $34 million. [Bowery Boogie] – Ariel Stulberg