$300M Margaritaville Resort Coming to NYC

By Barbra Murray

Margaritaville Holdings LLC is taking its global lifestyle brand to Manhattan with the planned opening of The Margaritaville Resort Times Square in New York City. The development team behind the $300 million, 234-key project consists of Soho Properties, MHP Real Estate Services and Chip and Andrew Weiss.

Margaritaville Times Square will take shape at 560 Seventh Ave., formerly home to the Parsons School of Design. Soho and MHP acquired the property in 2014 for $62.3 million, per New York City records, with visions of erecting a Dream Hotel. Now, the corner site will sprout a 29-story tower, featuring not only guestrooms, but lobby-level retail space and more than a handful of food and beverage venues.

“Margaritaville at 560 Seventh Ave. is a perfect addition to the pulsing energy of the Times Square submarket, which continues to thrive as one of the city’s most visited neighborhoods,” Sharif El-Gamal, chairman & CEO of Soho Properties, said in a prepared statement.

Soho and partners plan to deliver Margaritaville Times Square in 2020.

Manhattan hotel demand persists

With high average rates and occupancies, Manhattan continues to lead the U.S. hotel market, with Oahu and San Francisco trailing close behind, according to a first quarter 2018 report by commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield. Developers continue to respond accordingly, bringing project after project to the market. Recent announcements include McSam Hotel Group’s plans for the development of the 320-key Radisson Hotel New York City-Manhattan/Times Square, and Lightstone’s topping out of construction at the 349-key Moxy Chelsea Hotel.

Fears of oversaturation, however, may be unwarranted. As noted in the C&W report, Manhattan has experienced a 22 percent increase in demand, but only a 20 percent rise in supply, “diminishing worries that growth in demand would not keep pace with that of supply.”

 Images courtesy of The McBride Co.