NEW YORK CITY-The Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, a Midtown flagship property for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, is about to get a $150-million redo. All 1,780 guest rooms will be enlarged and renovated in two phases in what Sheraton Hotels calls “a floor-to-ceiling transformation” in a news release.

Hoyt Harper, global brand leader at Sheraton, says in a release that the makeover of the 50-story lodging property at 811 Seventh Ave. reflects a rebound in the economy and the travel sector. “On the heels of our successful $6-billion revitalization effort we continue to improve the quality and consistency of the brand portfolio by renovating iconic landmark properties in key destinations around the world,” says Harper.

The first phase of the renovation will include 1,080 guest rooms, including 32 grand suites and the Sheraton Club Lounge on the 45th floor; it’s scheduled for completion in May. The remaining guest rooms will begin renovation in December of this year, with a scheduled completion date of April 2012.

At the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in San Diego this past January, Starwood announced that it was planning to open 70 to 80 properties worldwide this year. The range is comparable to the 72 that opened in 2010, including the first New York City opening under its Aloft flag in the final days of December.

With that as a backdrop, Crain’s New York Business reported Wednesday that Starwood and Tribeca Associates had struck a tentative deal to buy the former Donnell Library site on West 53rd Street from Orient-Express Hotels, which bought it from the New York Public Library in 2007 but has yet to develop a hotel on the site. The partnership has plans to build a 260,000-square-foot condominium-hotel property, at a cost of about $400 million.

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