April 9, 2014

RE Rumor Mill: Hotel Carter, FactSet, Hare Krishnas

By Kaitlin Ugolik

The “dirtiest hotel in the U.S.,” Times Square's Hotel Carter, is poised to sell for as much as $170 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The hotel is a holdover from the neighborhood's days of “flophouses” and pornography shops, and has been named the dirtiest in the country three times by TripAdvisor Inc. The hotel hit the market last year, and the owners have reportedly received offers of as much as $170 million for the 600-room asset. About six different bidders have expressed interest, including Highgate Hotels and Morris Moinian, according to the Journal.

FactSet Research Systems Inc. has reportedly agreed to a 102,000-square-foot lease at Vornado Realty Trust's 90 Park Ave., consolidating the space that it currently holds in several separate locations throughout the building. Under its new lease, FactSet will have office space on the seventh, 10th and 11th floors of the 1-million-square-foot tower, according to Crain's. The deal comes after Vornado fought a vacancy problem at the building with major renovations. The lobby is currently undergoing a revitalization, and Vornado reportedly plans to spend about $30 million on upgrades at the building.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness, home of the Hare Krishna movement, has put its U.S. headquarters in downtown Brooklyn up for sale with a price tag of $60 million, The Real Deal reported. The price comes out to $300 per square foot for the 34,000-square-foot building at 295-309 Schermerhorn St. The building is currently home to a temple and a vegetarian restaurant, and has reportedly been owned by Sri Sri Radha Govinda Mandir since 1983. The Real Deal reported that the Hare Krishnas are looking to leave Brooklyn for a new headquarters in Queens, where most of its members reportedly live. Eastern Consolidated is marketing the Brooklyn building.

A parking garage on Manhattan's Upper West Side is reportedly poised to be torn down and rebuilt as a residential property covering up to 77,000 square feet. The New York Post reported that the garage at 219-223 W. 77th St., next to a new 20-story rental building called Larstrand, is being marketed as a “residential tear-down.” It's the latest in a string of garage-to-residential conversions; Manhattan's share of garages shrunk from 865 in 2012 to 860 last year, while in Brooklyn 40 garages have been demolished, according to the Post. Because of the Upper West Side garage's location, the Post speculated that it could sell for more than $60 million.

It turns out that NestSeekers broker Ryan Serhant was actually not involved in the $13 million social-media-only deal that he received considerable credit for earlier this week. According to The Real Deal, Elliman's Emma Hao actually did the deal. A Chinese investor reportedly approached Hao via messaging service WeChat and she brought the buyer to contract, not Million Dollar Listing star Serhant, an Elliman spokesperson told The Real Deal. The deal got a lot of press because it was one of the largest on record that had been brokered completely through social media and the property sold sight unseen.