Boutique Lower East Side hotel the Blue Moon, which hit the market last year, has dropped its asking price from almost $30 million to $19.5 million, the New York Observer reported.
Eastern Consolidated brokers Adelaide Polsinelli and Scott Ellard, who are handling the sale, told the Observer that creating an income-producing bar or lounge on the ground level was the key for the property, at 100 Orchard Street.
Owner Robert Settenbrino bought the hotel, between Delancey and Broome streets, for $1.24 million in two separate deals in 1997 and 2000, after spending years selling Italian menswear out of the storefront that now comprises the hotel lobby. Before gutting the interior, Settenbrino entered the 15 tenement apartments above to find that many of them had been unoccupied and untouched since 1936.
The hotel has since been restored by Settenbrino with 19th century and early 20th century touches, the Observer said.
“The hotel was built with loving care, but today the market for the hospitality industry has changed. It is not about a pretty, big room,” Polsinelli said. “It’s about how much fun can I have in this building?” [NYO]