Eurostars Buys Chemists Club Hotel In Midtown

A Spanish hotel operator is betting on Manhattan’s hospitality recovery.

Barcelona-based Eurostars Hotel Company bought the 107-key Chemists’ Club Hotel for about $95 million from Spanish investment firm Azora, sources with knowledge of the deal said. That breaks down to about $888,000 per key for the recently-renovated property at 52 East 41st Street.

Azora and Eurostars did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Eastdil Secured, which advised the seller on the deal, declined to comment.

Azora’s acquisition date was unclear. Fortuna Realty Group, led by Morris Moinian, developed the property, then known as the Dylan, before selling it to Grupo Hotusa and Losan Hotels 

World for $78 million in 2007. Hotusa owns Eurostars, so the purchase marks a homecoming of sorts. Eurostars owns and operates seven hotels across the United States, including one on Wall Street, and properties in Boston, Chicago, Miami and Washington, D.C.

The hotel occupies a 16-story Beaux-Arts building near Grand Central Terminal. Its ground-floor tenant, Benjamin Steakhouse, has operated in the building since 2006. The 1911 building long served as a private clubhouse for members of the chemistry profession, with research laboratories, a scientific library and social spaces. It was converted into the Dylan Hotel in 2000, and Britney Spears later opened a short-lived restaurant there in 2002.

The acquisition adds to a wave of foreign buyers snapping up hotels in New York City. Spanish hotel chain Meliá Hotels International bought the Nomad Hotel in June for $203 million. French company the Generation Essentials Group snapped up the Tribeca Hilton Garden Inn in March for $69 million.  And Israeli firm Fattal Hotel Group bought The Blakely this month for $38.5 million. 

The sale of the non-union hotel comes as owners continue to grapple with higher operating costs, weaker international tourism and slower-than-expected recovery from the pandemic. New York hotels still employ 12.9 percent fewer workers than before Covid, while visitor volumes remain 2.4 percent below 2019 levels, according to a recent report from the state comptroller.

A new labor agreement includes the largest pay increases in the nearly 100-year history of the powerful Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, putting additional pressure on owners of union hotels.

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