Master Planning
The Drake
My first masterplanning was on the team to totally renovate and re-decorate the Drake Swissotel on Park Avenue. The hotel was vintage 1927. Swissair and Nestle had purchased the property from Loews and wanted it to be the North American flagship of the young airline affiliated hotel brand.
The property was originally a residential pied-a-terre with polite vertical lift of 3 slow small front elevators. Most importantly with the evolving corporate transient comings and goings of a modern hotel we had to add an elevator bank and drive a shaft through 22 floors. Over 500 rooms were renovated, bathrooms were gutted, meeting rooms enhanced, terraces glassed in. Design contests were held. Facades were cleaned. Roofs were re-rubbered. Electric vaults were modernized. On the ground floor we moved out boring retailers, (who were paying rent) for money losing F&B that we thought was brand defining. The irony of this lesson took some time to sink in!
After a spend of $80 million, the property settled into a successful and profitable decade run throwing off strong competitive set Revpar and despite the New York union locals a respectable NOI. Soon however Nestle decided they were in the food business and Swissair needed to focus on flying. Deemed no longer a core sector of the parents we were spun off as a brand and the asset found itself a chattel of a major REIT.
Best and highest use!
Prime lesson of real estate is there is no brand emotion, no architectural legacy. A parcel is a financial instrument and just like water seeks its level, real estate will find its true value. A dozen years after the above renovation the property came to market more from demand than intent. New York real estate values in mid-town were eclipsing any EBITDA that even the most successful hotel could achieve. The bidding was fast and wicked and the property quickly changed hands and was closed on short notice in an attempt to catch the market. The market turned downwards and by the time the property was emptied and demolished it found itself as the world’s most expensive vacant lot. A quote of the day was “Manhattan has 79 other stalled construction sites but probably none to rival the Drake in location. It is inarguably the best development site in the country and possibly the world,”. A resilient and persistent NY developer rose from the ashes of that recession of the moment to create 432 Park Avenue an ultra-luxury condominium and the tallest residential tower in the western hemisphere.
The Drake
My first masterplanning was on the team to totally renovate and re-decorate the Drake Swissotel on Park Avenue. The hotel was vintage 1927. Swissair and Nestle had purchased the property from Loews and wanted it to be the North American flagship of the young airline affiliated hotel brand.
The property was originally a residential pied-a-terre with polite vertical lift of 3 slow small front elevators. Most importantly with the evolving corporate transient comings and goings of a modern hotel we had to add an elevator bank and drive a shaft through 22 floors. Over 500 rooms were renovated, bathrooms were gutted, meeting rooms enhanced, terraces glassed in. Design contests were held. Facades were cleaned. Roofs were re-rubbered. Electric vaults were modernized. On the ground floor we moved out boring retailers, (who were paying rent) for money losing F&B that we thought was brand defining. The irony of this lesson took some time to sink in!
After a spend of $80 million, the property settled into a successful and profitable decade run throwing off strong competitive set Revpar and despite the New York union locals a respectable NOI. Soon however Nestle decided they were in the food business and Swissair needed to focus on flying. Deemed no longer a core sector of the parents we were spun off as a brand and the asset found itself a chattel of a major REIT.
Best and highest use!
Prime lesson of real estate is there is no brand emotion, no architectural legacy. A parcel is a financial instrument and just like water seeks its level, real estate will find its true value. A dozen years after the above renovation the property came to market more from demand than intent. New York real estate values in mid-town were eclipsing any EBITDA that even the most successful hotel could achieve. The bidding was fast and wicked and the property quickly changed hands and was closed on short notice in an attempt to catch the market. The market turned downwards and by the time the property was emptied and demolished it found itself as the world’s most expensive vacant lot. A quote of the day was “Manhattan has 79 other stalled construction sites but probably none to rival the Drake in location. It is inarguably the best development site in the country and possibly the world,”. A resilient and persistent NY developer rose from the ashes of that recession of the moment to create 432 Park Avenue an ultra-luxury condominium and the tallest residential tower in the western hemisphere.
RSS Feed