9-Years-Stalled ‘Allen Street Hotel’ Back from the Dead with New Renderings (and Window Panels)

Against the odds, one of the longest stalled projects on the Lower East Side – it should be a punchline – just returned to life. Back from the dead, it seems, the sixteen-story Allen Street Hotel now has some new flair to discuss, the first real progress onsite since February 2011.

This single window panel on the Orchard Street facade, and the advent of new orange netting on the upper floors were together the first evidence. Even better, the new rendering posted to the project site reveals the new plan for the hotel. Completion date is now pegged at Spring 2018. That’s a full ten years after groundbreak.

Zombie status nixed.

Revised plans submitted to the Department of Buildings (disapproved as of yesterday) show that there will be seven rooms per floor, plus real estate for four bars (rooftop and three on the main level). Neighbors will have a field day with that one.

The Allen Street Hotel snuck onto the scene in the eleventh hour before the 2008 zoning took hold, and slyly ascended sixteen stories. Three years later, the now-former owner D.A.B. Group allegedly ceased the necessary mortgage payments, and the property slipped into foreclosure.

Then in 2016, eight years after the first concrete pours, the properties comprising 139-141 Orchard Street sold in auction to real estate tycoon Morris Moinian and his partner Morry Kalimian of Elk Investors. The duo paid $30.75 million for the incomplete development with the intention of completing the project within twelve to sixteen months. They’re a bit behind schedule.

Meanwhile, the area beneath the scaffolding remains a urine-soaked dumping ground.

The Allen Street Hotel foundation, Aug. 2010