It’s the place to Bea
Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 12:34PM Rent above a hotel & food court
For years, developers have made all sorts of attempts to marry the hotel with the condo.
They’ve created condo hotels where buyers can purchase rooms that can be used by hotel guests when they’re not there. (In many cases, like at Trump Soho, buyers are required to have their unit used by the hotel for a set number of days each year.) Or, they’ve built high-priced condos on top of their hotels.
But what about merging a hotel with a rental? That’s actually one we hadn’t heard before.
But now New York has the Beatrice, a massive 301-unit rental that sits atop the 292 rooms of the Eventi hotel on Sixth Avenue in Chelsea.
“When we initially decided to go forward, our initial concept was a condo on top,” says Evan Stein, president of JD Carlisle, developer of the 54-story building between 29th and 30th streets.
JEFFREY CHODOROW'S FOODPARC EATERY
But that plan was hatched long before the financial crisis hit (the developer broke ground on the property in early 2006), and adding another expensive condo project to the struggling, crowded market didn’t seem to make sense.
“We thought the layouts would be good, rental-wise,” Stein says. So — with a little tweaking — he shifted gears.
Move-ins just started at the Beatrice, which has rented more than 25 percent of its units since opening its leasing office last month. Studios start at $2,790, one-bedrooms start at $3,920, and two-bedrooms start at $6,075. There are also four three-bedroom penthouses, whose prices have not been finalized but should be around $20,000. And, Stein says, the building is currently offering concessions of one month’s free rent on the first third of the apartments leased.
Not unlike condo components on top of hotels, the Beatrice is trying hard to be its own separate entity. There’s a residents-only gym and yoga studio on the 25th floor and on the 54th floor, a 2,600-square-foot “cloud terrace” (a k a roof terrace) and a 3,700-square-foot “cloud lounge.” The Beatrice’s concierge service (Luxury Attache) is also different from Eventi’s.
But that doesn’t mean there’s no interaction between the rentals and the hotel, which opened in May. “We’ll offer some of the services — like discounted rates at the spa,” Stein says.
And there’s also the proximity to the hotel’s new FoodParc (see story at right), a food court from Jeffrey Chodorow that opened this week. (“Some people say it looks like the cafeteria for the Death Star,” Brett Mitchell, director of food and beverage for Chodorow’s China Grill Management, says and laughs.)
But renters will have to make the trek down if they want to sample the food. They might live on top a hotel, but room service isn’t part of the offering.
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