Hotel opens on 28th St

Real Estate Weekly, March 20, 2002

The Park South, the latest in the new generation of small-scale "boutique" hotels that is changing the Manhattan streetscape, has just opened at 124 East 28th St., between Park and Lexington Avenues.

The 143-room hotel, where rates average $200 a night, was converted from an eight-story building, previously the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health and before that an old YMCA, and an adjoining four-story annex.

The annex has been converted into the upscale Black Duck restaurant, specializing in New England cuisine and with tables for about 75 people. The building and annex was purchased for $7 million in February 1999 by an out of state bed-and-breakfast chain seeking a toehold in Manhattan with a full-service hotel, and then totally gut-renovated over the next two years.

Two brokers with Insignia Douglas Elliman handled both sides of the transaction. Beth Breciani represented the buyer and Larry Michaels the seller, working with an outside consultant to the Postgraduate Center.

With a new modernistic facade and marquee complementing the sleekly designed interior, the hotel with its Black Duck restaurant presents itself as a serene oasis on a busy commercial street.