Hidrock Realty has announced plans to convert their recently acquired office property at 960 Sixth Avenue to a hotel.
The 100,000 Sqft building located near Herald Square was purchased for around $40-million which is less than half of the $105-million the previous owner, Statuto Group, paid when they purchased the property in 2007. Last week Hidrock took possession of the title and after examining whether to continue operating the building as an office property or a hotel, they decided that the hotel numbers look better although they may leave some office space depending on demand.
Conversion of the 82-year-old building will take around a year and a half and costs could exceed $20 million. Manhattan currently has around 75,000 hotel rooms with another 4,000 set to come online by Q1 2011.