Westgate Resorts Buys Vintage Manhattan Hotel

By Scott Baltic

Westgate New York City

Westgate Resorts has acquired the former Hilton New York Grand Central, a 23-floor hotel on Midtown Manhattan’s East Side. The company rebranded the 300-key asset as the Westgate New York City, Westgate announced last week. Financials on the transaction were not released, and Westgate did not respond to Commercial Property Executive’s request for additional information.

In a prepared statement, David Siegel, Westgate’s founder & CEO noted that this property was the company’s first acquisition of an urban hotel.

Sited on 42nd Street at 2nd Avenue in the Tudor City neighborhood, not far from Grand Central Station and the United Nations, the hotel first opened in 1931 as the Hotel Tudor. The building was later known as the Hilton Manhattan East and the Hilton New York Grand Central.

The hotel is recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Historic Hotels of America and features Gothic Revival architecture. Additionally, the property has a business center, a 24-hour fitness center and 3,500 square feet of flexible meeting space.

Westgate reportedly plans an extensive renovation and will also explore opportunities to add timeshare villas.

Never a dull moment

Manhattan continues its typically vigorous level of hotel construction and investment, with a New York level of diversity in the properties. Last December, the citizenM Bowery Hotel topped off. The 300-key hotel is being built with pre-engineered modular units made in Poland and assembled at the site. In March, Marriott announced plans to build two Moxy hotels in Manhattan, the Moxy Chelsea and the Moxy Downtown. They’re scheduled for completion by year’s end.

In April, Margaritaville Holdings announced the $300 million, 234-key Margaritaville Resort Times Square. The property is scheduled to open in 2020 and is being developed by Soho Properties, MHP Real Estate Services, and Chip and Andrew Weiss. And in late April, Marriott opened its first AC Hotel in NYC, the 290-key AC Hotel New York Times Square.

Image courtesy of Westgate Resorts