Dubai World Loses Trophy Manhattan Knickerbocker Building to Lender
Financially hard-hit Dubai World has lost another trophy property to a lender. This time around it was the legendary, 94-year-old, 300,000-square-foot, 10-story Knickerbocker Building in Manhattan’s Times Square district.Danske Bank A/S of Copenhagen took back the former 300-room hotel property this week after Istithmar World Capital, the private-equity arm of the Dubai government’s investment fund, defaulted on a $300 million loan.
Ben Singer, a broker with Jones Lang LaSalle retained to sell the property, tells The Wall Street Journal a column of buyers is already lined up to bid on the asset located at 1466 Broadway in Manhattan’s busiest and most glamorous commercial and entertainment district. Another address for the building is 142 West 42nd Street.
The 50-percent vacant building has been operated as a retail and office site for the last 30 years and became known locally as the 1466 Building. It was also know in previous decades as Six Times Square, the Newsweek Building and the Knickerbocker Building.
Istithmar World Capital had planned to re-convert it to a 300-room hotel after paying $300 million for the property and an additional $76 million for an adjoining vacant lot, according to the WSJ.