Thomas MacMillan Photo
A developer has scrapped plans for a new downtown four-star hotel — and sold the building to a company looking to put more than 100 new apartments overlooking the Green. Estimated sales price: $13.5 million.
The building in question is the 11-story tower at 205 Church St. attached to the Wells Fargo (formerly Union Trust) bank at the corner of Church and Elm Streets.
A New York company called Hampshire Hotels & Resorts bought the 151,965 square-foot circa 1928 building (best known for its rooftop cupola) in 2009 for $10.5 million. It evicted a random collection of attorneys and other small businesses operating out of the rundown building’s offices in the hopes of updating the heating and ventilation systems, restoring the property to its former grandeur, and renovating it into a 150-room luxury hotel.
Four years later, the bank remains open, and the rest of the building remains closed and empty.
On March 28 a New York-based developer bought the building (or in effect took ownership) of 205 Church from Hampshire for a nominal $10, according to the warranty deed on file in the city land records. Sellers and buyers are not required to list actual sales prices on warranty deeds. But the documents do list the city conveyance tax, which in this case was $67,5000. That would indicate an approximate $13.5 million sales price.
The developer also obtained a $10 million mortgage from Captial One for the property, according to the land records.
The plan is to renovate the building to create “100-plus” market-rate apartments, according to Dana Collins of New York-based Cooper Square Realty, which will manage the property. “It’s going to have to be completely redone.”
She said she doesn’t yet have details about the project or when it will open.
Principals of Cooper Square Realty, including founder and CEO David Kuperberg, formed a separate limited-liability corporation called Cooper Church to buy the property.
The principals have met with city development officials to discuss their plans. They’re not seeking any government subsidies, according to city Economic Development Administrator Kelly Murphy.
“It’s exciting for us,” she said. “We all worked hard to get to the point where city doesn’t have to be involved [financially] in every deal” to attract developers. She cited a 136-apartment mixed-use project planned at the corner of Howe and Chapel as another example of the city attracting subsidy-free development.
The city has had a harder time luring a developer to a surface parking lot a block away at 10 Wall St. It invited bids to buy and develop the lot, then decided earlier this year that that bids all came in too low. It did succeed in selling lots in Wooster Square to a builder who plans to erect new homes.
Well, let's hope they actually do something with it this time around vs just selling it to someone else in four years.