Hell's Kitchen's Blighted Windermere Building Could Become Hotel

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — The Windermere, a red-brick giant on Ninth Avenue that has languished in disrepair for years, could return to its former glory as a hotel or office building under a new proposal submitted to the city on Monday.

The landmarked building at 400 West 57th St. was built in the early 1880s as a residence for unmarried women. Starting in the 1980s, it fell into "a state of extreme disrepair" and was vacated in 2007 after the city declared it unfit for habitation, its current owners wrote in this week's filing.

The blighted building sat shrouded in scaffolding for years and racked up hundreds of housing violations with the city — more than any other building in New York.

Recently, however, it has shown signs of life.

In January, owners Windermere Properties LLC got the green light from the city's landmarks commission to renovate the building's street-level facade to add new windows and cornices, repair original cast-iron columns and restore some of its intricate brickwork. Those repairs will be finished this year, owners said.

Now, the owners have submitted a 200-page Environmental Assessment Study laying out two possible uses for the eight-story building: a 174-room hotel with a rooftop restaurant and shops, or an office complex that would also include 20 affordable apartments. (The study was first reported by New York YIMBY.)

If the hotel is approved, it would realize plans first announced a decade ago which failed to materialize.

If neither of those plans is approved, owners would turn to a third "no action" scenario, where the Windermere would be renovated into a 65-unit apartment building — including 20 affordable units.

The owners will seek approval from the landmarks commission and a special zoning permit to start construction, since it falls within Hell's Kitchen's protected Clinton District. If approved, work would last two years and could be done by 2023.

The owner behind Windermere Properties has been listed in public filings as Mark Tress, the developer who bought the building in 2009.

Previous coverage:

• Rehab Of Blighted Hell's Kitchen Building OK'd By Landmarks Board
• This Hell's Kitchen Building Has The Most Violations In Manhattan