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Comment by jeron | Hacker News Reader

Just visited Flatiron building a few days ago. There’s scaffolding covering the front and sides, are those renovations being done by the existing owner?

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Do you recall whether the scaffolding went all the way up? My understanding is lots of NYC buildings have 1 level of scaffolding about the sidewalk as there is a law requiring regular checks against bits of the facade falling off and the scaffolding is a "temporary" alternative that allows them to avoid that expense.

The first episode of the series How To With John Wilson is about NYC scaffolding - highly recommended.

Right now it is full on scaffolding. Not the green stuff that is everywhere in the city. It covers the whole building, you can barely see the sides.

I had always just assumed there was no such thing as a scaffolding warehouse and scaffolding just stayed where it was until it was needed elsewhere.

Wow, so that's why there is ugly scaffolding on so many buildings in NYC...

It was supposed to be renovated and converted to a hotel, but there was some sort of squabble between the co-owners and it was left half gutted. It was auctioned off then as a dispute resolution.

Hotel definitely sounds like the ideal use for it.

Getting to stay in an iconic building? And getting to brag about snagging a skinny triangle room? And the location on Madison Square Park is ideal.

Definitely hope it winds up that way. I could totally imagine Ace Hotel buying and running it if they didn't already have a location just a few blocks north. There's got to be another boutique urban hotel brand though?

When it comes to this kind of property, hotel brands like Ace are usually operators, not owners. VC is a thing in hospitality real estate too, and this is what a lot of real estate VC funds do. They'll buy a distressed property or location with potential and flip it into a hotel, and then pick an operator. If the property is successful, they'll eventually get an exit when they sell it to a larger, lower-risk cash-flow oriented real estate fund and pocket a profit.

As for "boutique" urban hotel brands, I think it's a fad lately, even within the major hospitality groups - the Hilton Curio and Marriott Autograph sub-brands specialize in these kinds of things, and Westin / W used to operate a lot of these kinds of properties too.

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