Dream Hotel Comes to Times Square

NEW YORK CITY—A Dream Hotel is slated to rise in Times Square, courtesy of Soho Properties, MHP Real Estate Services and Hampshire Hotels Management LLC. The partnership on Tuesday said they had acquired 560 Seventh Ave. as a part of a development project valued at more than $300 million. The purchase price for 560 Seventh was not disclosed; GlobeSt.com reported last October that the property was in contract for $61.5 million.

The property formerly was owned and occupied by Parsons School of Design, which received it as a gift from philanthropist Albert List in 1978 and which moved its campus to Greenwich Village earlier this year. Its new owners plan to raze the existing structure at 560 Seventh and put up a hotel that will also include 20,000 square feet of retail.

For Hampshire, the Times Square project will be the third Dream Hotel in Manhattan, joining locations at 210 W. 55th St. and the flagship Dream Downtown at 355 W. 16th St. “The southern end of the Times Square District has clearly transformed into a formidable business corridor, and we see this important address as a strategic addition to the Dream portfolio,” says Eric Danziger, Hampshire's president and CEO, who assumed both roles on Monday. David Sturner, principal and COO of MHP, adds that the property will be “completely re-imagined and will be a terrific addition to perhaps the most visited area in New York.”

In connection with the development, the developers previously reached an agreement to secure the future of the Garment Center Congregation, which had leased a portion of the ground floor at 560 Seventh, by financing the temporary relocation of the congregation. “We are especially pleased to accomplish our business goals while preserving an important historic religious institution,” says Sharif El-Gamal, chairman and CEO of Soho Properties.

The transaction was brokered by Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, who says it's “indicative of the growing allure of a rapidly expanding Times Square District. It was also one of those unusual transactions that was a great deal for both the seller and the buyer.” MHP's James Tamborlane acted on behalf of the partnership in acquiring the property and the air rights, while Tamborlane and Jesse Rubens, also of MHP, brokered the debt from Colony Capital.