NEW YORK | Hudson Rise (470 11th Ave) | 220 M / 720 FT | FLOORS

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...st-38th-street

700-foot tower to rise on West 38th Street
Developer pays $115 million for the Hudson Yards site and air rights that will allow him to build his hotel/condo project with Chinese buyers in mind.


Daniel Geiger
April 10, 2014

The builder of one of the most exclusive condo buildings in Hudson Yards is about to do his biggest deal yet in the fast-changing West Side neighborhood. Sean Ludwick, who operates the residential development firm Black House, has reached an agreement to acquire a group of parcels on the corner of West 38th Street and 11th Avenue, according to sources.

Mr. Ludwick could not immediately be reached for comment.

Using air rights that he plans to purchase from the city that are available to developers in the Hudson Yards district, Mr. Ludwick will be able to raise a 700-foot tall, 380,000-square-foot hotel and residential tower on the site. All told, Mr. Ludwick, along with an Asian equity firm who he is partnering with to do the deal, will spend about $115 million acquiring the site and the air rights, according to a source.

About 65% of the development will be a hotel and the top floors of the building, totaling about 115,000 square feet, will be high-end residential condos that will target buyers from China.

In recent years, Mr. Ludwick has found considerable success catering to the influx of foreigners looking to acquire homes in the city. At the Soori for instance, an ultra-luxury condo building that Mr. Ludwick is currently building on West 29th Street, he hired an architect from Singapore and is marketing the apartments to buyers from that country.

For his new - and biggest - project, Mr. Ludwick is planning again to use an architect from the nation whose citizens he hopes will buy his condos. In this case it will be a firm based in Shanghai.

The building is just across the street from the newly-renovated Jacob K. Javits Center, making the new tower's hotels one of the closest hostelries to that convention facility.

In addition to the Soori, Mr. Ludwick's firm Black House has built other projects in the Hudson Yards area, including the Americano Hotel.