http://ny.curbed.com/archives/catego...dtown_west.php
Unarrested Development
Midtown's Library-Hotel Plan Becomes Library-Condo-Hotel Plan
Three years ago the NYPL's aging five-story Donnell Library on West 53rd Street across from MoMA was shuttered as part of a unique arrangement. Orient-Express Hotels agreed to purchase the building for $59 million and build a new 11-story luxury hotel on the site, with a new space for a smaller library included in the deal. That plan fell victim to the credit crunch, but now it's back with some new details, and new developers: Tribeca Associates (of Smyth Hotel and Artisan Lofts fame), and a little company called Starwood Hotels. Crain's reports the duo are swooping in on the still-standing Donnell branch, and they have the NYPL's blessing. The plan is to build a $400 million, 260,000-square-foot building with hotel rooms and condo units. The deal could still fall apart, so don't get too excited about a reopened library just yet, people who are too cheap to buy books.