Incredibly gentrified as it has become, the Lower East Side is still lacking that hallmark of neighborhood development: a decent boutique hotel. Sure, The Hotel on Rivington was one of the firm mega-towers to mar the tenenment-scale neighbhorhood’s skyline, but The Observer has always found that place to be pretty meh, and only getting worse. The Thompson has not been much better.
Now, one of the most stalled structures in the city, 180 Ludlow—it’s been an empty shell for years, something straight out of bombed out Beirut—has found a buyer, and it is the very reputable gang at BD Hotels, Curbed reports.
BD, this generation’s Andre Balazs—or are they Ian Schrager—are responsible for such hits the Maritime, Greenwich and Jane hotels, as well as the nearby Bowery, which has been giving the neighbors in the East Village boutique bragging rights for a couple of years now. The bloggers over at EV Grieve spotted the lights back on in the building just the other night, so it looks like these guys are back to work already. Which is good timing, considering the insatiable thirst for hotels in the city these days.
