Terrence Lowenberg and Todd Cohen’s Icon Realty Management bought the 1850s-era Chelsea Pines Inn.
The firm paid $13.75 million to longtime owner Jay Lesiger for the five-story, 23-key property. Icon, which owns about 1,800 rental units citywide, as well as the Gem Hotel Chelsea, plans to continue to operate the building as a boutique hotel.
Brock Emmetsberger and others from Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller. Bidding on the property was brisk, according to the Wall Street Journal reported.
“We had a whole slew of hoteliers and inn owners who wanted to continue to use it as an inn,” Emmetsberger told the paper. “We were pleasantly surprised.”
The townhouse, located at 317 West 14th Street, was converted to a hotel in 1983.
Back in November, Icon sold two East Village rental buildings at 326-328 East 4th Street for a combined $31 million, nearly five times what it paid for the pair just a few years earlier. The company bought two Williamsburg commercial warehouses at 69-71 Grand Street earlier this year for $10.6 million. [WSJ, second item] — Ariel Stulberg