From Crain’s New York Business:
Midtown Library Site to Sprout New $400M Hotel
There is a new deal to develop a hotel on the site of Donnell Library on West 53rd Street, replacing a plan that disintegrated two years ago amid the financial crisis. Tribeca Associates and Starwood Hotels have teamed up to purchase the contract to build a hotel from Orient-Express Hotels Inc., which backed out of a deal to develop a property there in 2009, sources familiar with the transaction said. Orient agreed to buy the library site, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, in 2007 for $59 million. The library's decision to sell off the site raised some hackles at the time, but the Donnell was in poor condition and the proceeds were going to be used to help fund the renovation of the main library on Fifth Avenue, published reports said. Click here for the full story.