Dune Real Estate Partners has agreed to pay about $190 million to Anglo Irish Bank for a not with a face value of about $300 million for the Mark Hotel on the northwest corner of Madison Avenue and 77th Street, according to an article in today's edition of The Wall Street Journal by Craig Karmin.
The article said that "Dune plans to work with the Mark's developer, Alexico Group," with which it has been a partner on other projects. The article added that Dune "beat out a number of other contenders, including Starwood Capital."
Alexico bought the 84-year-old hotel, which is distinguished by its sloping roof tower, several years ago and spent $200 million on renovations and planned to convert 42 of its 160 rooms into luxury cooperative apartments, but, the article said, "after scant buyer demand, they scaled back their plans in 2009 to selling 10 suites with the aim of raising of $167 million."
Alexico had hired Jacques Grange to redesign much of the building's common areas.
According to public property records, only two co-ops have been sold for a total of $15.7 million, the article said.
The Mark still operates as a 150-room hotel with room rates starting at about $450 a night, the article said. Alexico does not own the land under the building and has a ground lease that expires in 2131 on which it owns about $4 million a year, the article said.
Dune had teamed with Alexico on a 57-story tower designed by Herzog & de Meuron when they acquired the library and air rights from the New York Law School library at 56 Leonard Street in TriBeCa for about $136.5 million in 2006, the article noted, adding that "Dune has been in discussions with a Goldman Sachs fund about possibly financing the [Mark Hotel not purchase, though it is unclear if the Wall Street firm will be involved, according to people familiar with the matter."
Dune was founded by Daniel Neidich, a former real estate executive with Goldman Sachs, and has made investments in The Standard New York and the Ace Hotel.
The residential condominium tower planned for 56 Leonard Street in TriBeCa and designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the architects of the "Bird's Nest" stadium in Beijing and 40 Bond Street in NoHo, would have had 145 apartments and is expected to be completed in late 2010.
Every floor in the new Herzog & de Meuron tower is different and rotated from the floors above and below. The press release for the project described it as "a thoughtful, daring and ultimately dazzling new alternative - the iconic American skyscraper re-envisioned as a pixilated vertical layering of individually sculpted, highly customized, graceful private residences opening to the atmosphere." In other words, every apartment in the shimmy-shimmy-shake form for the tower will have a balcony.
The press release also noted that the project "updates the relationship between private tower and public streetscape with an articulated base whose cantilevers generate a sense of movement and permeability," adding that "Here, the building's defining corner will be the site of a major commissioned sculpture by internationally celebrated London-based artist Anish Kapoor."
Alexico is headed by Ivan Senbahar and Simon Elias and was the developer also of 165 Charles Street, a Richard Meier-designed apartment building on West Street.
The article said that "Dune plans to work with the Mark's developer, Alexico Group," with which it has been a partner on other projects. The article added that Dune "beat out a number of other contenders, including Starwood Capital."
Alexico bought the 84-year-old hotel, which is distinguished by its sloping roof tower, several years ago and spent $200 million on renovations and planned to convert 42 of its 160 rooms into luxury cooperative apartments, but, the article said, "after scant buyer demand, they scaled back their plans in 2009 to selling 10 suites with the aim of raising of $167 million."
Alexico had hired Jacques Grange to redesign much of the building's common areas.
According to public property records, only two co-ops have been sold for a total of $15.7 million, the article said.
The Mark still operates as a 150-room hotel with room rates starting at about $450 a night, the article said. Alexico does not own the land under the building and has a ground lease that expires in 2131 on which it owns about $4 million a year, the article said.
Dune had teamed with Alexico on a 57-story tower designed by Herzog & de Meuron when they acquired the library and air rights from the New York Law School library at 56 Leonard Street in TriBeCa for about $136.5 million in 2006, the article noted, adding that "Dune has been in discussions with a Goldman Sachs fund about possibly financing the [Mark Hotel not purchase, though it is unclear if the Wall Street firm will be involved, according to people familiar with the matter."
Dune was founded by Daniel Neidich, a former real estate executive with Goldman Sachs, and has made investments in The Standard New York and the Ace Hotel.
The residential condominium tower planned for 56 Leonard Street in TriBeCa and designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the architects of the "Bird's Nest" stadium in Beijing and 40 Bond Street in NoHo, would have had 145 apartments and is expected to be completed in late 2010.
Every floor in the new Herzog & de Meuron tower is different and rotated from the floors above and below. The press release for the project described it as "a thoughtful, daring and ultimately dazzling new alternative - the iconic American skyscraper re-envisioned as a pixilated vertical layering of individually sculpted, highly customized, graceful private residences opening to the atmosphere." In other words, every apartment in the shimmy-shimmy-shake form for the tower will have a balcony.
The press release also noted that the project "updates the relationship between private tower and public streetscape with an articulated base whose cantilevers generate a sense of movement and permeability," adding that "Here, the building's defining corner will be the site of a major commissioned sculpture by internationally celebrated London-based artist Anish Kapoor."
Alexico is headed by Ivan Senbahar and Simon Elias and was the developer also of 165 Charles Street, a Richard Meier-designed apartment building on West Street.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
6sqft delivers the latest on real estate, architecture, and design, straight from New York City.
