An important west midtown mid-block development site near Carnegie Hall has been sold for $63 million.

The site comprises the former site of a Horn & Hardart "automat" restaurant at 104 West 57th Street and the adjoining six-story building at 108 West 57th Street.

The Horn & Hardart two-story building was built in 1938 and is in the process of being demolished and most recently it housed Shelly's New York restaurant, which moved to another nearby location on 57th Street.

The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission recently declined to hold a hearing on its designation as an official city landmark, which had been recommended by some civic organizations including the New York Landmarks Conservancy although yesterday it commission held a hearing on the proposed designation of another Horn & Hardart restaurant located on Broadway at 104th Street.

Earlier this year, the New York Landmarks Conservancy joined other groups including the Muncipal Art Society, Friends of Terra Cotta, and The Art Deco Society of New York, to request a public hearing for the landmark designation of 104 West 57th Street, which it described as "a rare example of streamlined modernism and the last freestanding Horn & Hardart Automat in midtown Manhattan."

"The Automat," according to the conservancy, "was first nominated for landmark consideration in 1982. After two more decades of wear, tear, and neglect of the site's terra cotta facade, a comprehensive brief on the significance of the Automat was prepared by architectural historians John Juayj and John Kriskiewicz and submitted to the Landmarks Preservation Commission staff in 2001. In the intervening four years, aside from acknowledging receipt of the report, there has been no further comment or action by the Landmarks Preservation Commission."

"The site," the conservancy argued, "is notable not only for its curved, Art Moderne facade but also as a symbol of a quintessential New York dining experience."

Horn & Hardart was founded by Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart in Philadelphia on December 22, 1888 when they opened a 15-sear caf?t 39 South 13th Street opposite the John Wanamaker department store. They opened their first "automat" in New York at Broadway and 13th Street in 1912. The company's slogan was "Less Work for Mother," and at the company's peak the large Art-Deco-style restaurants had walls lined with rows of glass-door niches containing sandwiches and desserts, such as a yummy plum-and-apricot pie, and the like that could be accessed by depositing some nickels in a slot next to the door and twisting a brass-knarled handle to open the door. In addition to the glass boxes, the automat also had a large hot-food section where one could get the best Harvard beets in the city.

The two lots have about a total of 112,965 building square feet and according to Mark Spinelli of Massey Knakal Realty Services, which represented the seller, "The property sold for $557.66 per buildable square foot.

"The sale represents one of the most significant land sales in 2006," said Massey Knakal Broker Mark Spinelli, who exclusively represented the seller with Chairman Robert Knakal and Managing Partner James Nelson. "The premium price was nearly 20% higher than the average price paid for large scale development sites in Manhattan south of 96th Street. In fact, the only two large scale comparable land sales that surpassed the 57th Street site were Harry Macklowe's purchase of 440 Park Avenue and Garden Homes' purchase of 170 East End Avenue."

"Just as demand for condominiums seems to have declined, demand for hotel space has soared," Mr. Spinelli said, noting that the seller had prepared plans for a 25-story building on the site where the ground and second floor are retail, the third and fourth floors are commercial and the above floors are residential."

The property was purchased by a Manhattan hospitality company.