[Eidolon]

Across from Javits, buyer takes 2nd bite of apple

By Daniel Geiger
August 5, 2013 1:27 p.m.

Across from Javits, buyer takes 2nd bite of apple
Investor David Marx buys back the site he lost to his lender, Lehman Brothers, and pays roughly a third less than he had in 2007. He plans to build a hotel of up to 210,000 square feet.

Real estate investor David Marx likes the prospect of building a hotel right on a piece of property across the street from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center so much, he's buying it for the second time, this time for over $30 million. During the recession, he was booted by his lender Lehman Brothers.

Mr. Marx, a real estate investor who owns other parcels in the far West Side neighborhood, including a development site on the northeast corner of West 34th Street and Tenth Avenue, is acquiring 448 11th Ave., a piece of land on the corner of West 37th Street.

It's Mr. Marx's second try at the property, which he first acquired with partners at the peak of the market in 2007 for a whopping price of nearly $45 million. That initial ownership didn't end well. In 2011, with construction financing almost impossible to come by and unable to break ground, he was forced to hand the property back to its lender, Lehman Brothers Holdings, which put the property back on the market several months ago.

Another one back from the dead! I do wonder if this is getting redesigned though I hope it is, since the rest of the Hudson Yards area is nearing construction.