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New York

Garment District owners file for 36-story hotel, office project

Mixed-use development at 515 7th Avenue needs rarely issued permit

Hotel, Office Space Proposed For 515 7th Avenue
Luxury Hotel Partners' Jennica Arazi and Daniel Shamoon with 515 7th Avenue (Luxury Hotel Partners, Google Maps, Getty)

A new hotel and office may be headed for the Garment District, if the project can get a rezoning and a rarely issued permit from the city. 

A limited partnership known as 515 7th Avenue Realty is planning to construct a 36-story, mixed-use building near the corner of West 38th Street and Seventh Avenue, according to an application filed with City Planning. 

The 355,500-square-foot proposal calls for 23 stories of office space and 255 hotel rooms, which would replace a four-story commercial building on the site. 

The property at 515 7th Avenue is owned by Daniel Shamoon and his sister Jennica Arazi of Luxury Hotel Partners. Public records show the pair bought the site in 2013.

A spokesperson for the hotel group did not respond to a request for comment. The proposal was first reported by Crain’s.

Before moving forward, the developers need new zoning, a text amendment, and a special permit for the hotel, and must navigate the city’s seven-month Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or Ulurp. The process includes input from multiple levels of city government, with the City Council ultimately deciding a project’s fate.

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The application is now in the pre-certification stage, which it will need to complete ahead of the public review. 

The city in late 2021 passed a law requiring special permits for hotel projects, which until then could be built as-of-right in commercial districts. The de Blasio administration’s rationale for the law was to prevent an excess of hotels, particularly in residential neighborhoods. But the measure was a top priority for the Hotel Trades Council, which saw it as a way to stop the proliferation of nonunion hotels.

Critics argued the law would cripple hotel development as the industry recovered from the pandemic. The Department of City Planning estimated the law will render the city 47,000 hotel rooms short of demand by 2035.

Since the law’s adoption, special permits have been few and far between. Zero applications were filed in the year following its passage.

The law excludes hotels in the Theater District on largely vacant lots. However, the 515 Seventh Avenue project is three blocks south of the designated zone.  

Luxury Hotel Partners is a London-based hospitality and management company. Under its umbrella are several hotels in southern Spain, including the Puente Romano Beach Resort and the Marbella Club Hotel Golf Resort & Spa.

https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2022/12/09/how-special-are-these-permits-no-one-got-any/

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City Planning CommissionHotel MarketNew York City Council