Airbnb's Deal For 130K SF Hotel Concept At Rockefeller Plaza Called Off

75 Rockefeller Plaza In Midtown Manhattan

An ambitious partnership that would have seen Airbnb creating hundreds of rooms at a Rockefeller Plaza office tower has been shelved.

The short-term rental website, which has upended traditional hospitality in recent years, was to build about 200 apartment spaces across 130K SF at 75 Rockefeller Plaza, owned and operated by RXR Realty. But with the coronavirus pandemic bringing hotel demand in the city to a standstill, the deal is off, Business Insider reports.

“Airbnb and RXR mutually agreed that, under the circumstances, it didn’t make sense to proceed with the project,” RXR CEO Scott Rechler told BI. “It's going to take some time for the industry's occupancy rates to rebound enough where it justifies new supply.”

Both parties left open the possibility that the partnership could re-emerge down the road.

Aside from the Airbnb plans, RXR last year agreed for WeWork to take 90K SF across four floors at 75 Rock in a cost- and profit-sharing agreement. Meanwhile, Flexible workspace provider Convene, of which RXR is a backer but which was forced to furlough more than 400 employees last month, was planning to run a member’s club in the 32nd-floor penthouse.

The move toward flexibility in a traditional office environment had raised the eyebrows of some lenders, Rechler said last year, and securing financing meant "a lot of handholding and meetings" with lenders to explain why so much of the 623K SF building was being filled with companies in the sharing economy.

“At 75 Rock, it required actually refinancing the building, because the existing lender didn't like the business plan," he later told Bisnow. "So we’ve had to bring in a new lender.”

RXR filed notice with the city in early 2019 that its $148.6M loan from TIAA would be transferred to Wells Fargo in conjunction with the profit-sharing deal with WeWork.

Continue reading this story with a free account

Log in or register
Sign up for more articles like this
Subscribe to Bisnow's New York Newsletters
Related Stories

Bally's Lines Up $560M Loan For Bronx Casino: The N.Y. Deal Sheet

Data Center Spills 5,000 Gallons Of Fuel Into New Jersey River

Historic Brooklyn Hotel To Be Turned Into Ritz-Carlton-Branded Condos

Daniel Negari Buys Downtown LA Hotel For $34M

Taconic Partners Sheds Another NYC Life Sciences Property

Oxford Properties' U.S. Investment Head On Why It's Buying Office Again — And Where

Luxury Marriott Hotel Will Take Space In Charlotte Office Conversion

25 Years After 9/11, Lower Manhattan Is Finally Firing On All Cylinders

Tishman Speyer Seeks $92M Tax Break For Next Hudson Yards Office Tower

SL Green Selling SoHo Building For $226M

Innovo On Leasing Spree At Multistory LIC Warehouse: The N.Y. Deal Sheet

Republican Midterm Convention Could Fill More Than 5,000 Hotel Rooms In Dallas