Matthews™ Executes Strategic $12M Disposition of Rare Manhattan SRO Hospitality Asset

NEW YORK, NY—Matthews™, a commercial real estate investment services and technology firm, represented the seller, William Su, in the disposition of 101 Bowery in New York, New York. Matthews™ Executive Vice President Stephen Dadourian facilitated the $12,000,000 transaction, which marked the highest price per square foot for an SRO asset sold in Manhattan within the last 10 years.

Situated in the heart of Manhattan’s Chinatown between Grand Street and Hester Street, 101 Bowery is a five-story, 13,260-square-foot, single-room occupancy (SRO) building featuring an owner-occupied ground-floor retail space and four vacant floors designated for lodging house use. Formerly leased to the New World Hotel, the upper floors have remained vacant since the hotel ceased operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a rare value-add opportunity supported by the property’s grandfathered certificate of occupancy permitting up to 161 cubicles.

Having owned the property for decades, Su and his siblings elected to pursue an exit strategy to reposition the building for a new hospitality operator. Recognizing that the property’s highest value would be achieved by buyers who understood its unique entitlements, Matthews™ advised the sellers to secure a Certificate of No Harassment (CONH) during the marketing process, removing a critical entitlement hurdle for buyers. Matthews™ executed a return-on-investment analysis and targeted outreach campaign to a highly specialized pool of micro-hotel operators both domestically and internationally.

Matthews™ directly sourced the buyer, an experienced hotelier with projects in Europe and on the West Coast. The hotelier plans to redevelop the property into a “Sleeper Cabin” micro hotel, leveraging the building’s rare grandfathered lodging house designation to provide an affordable lodging option for solo travelers in New York City.

“Every unique asset has a unique buyer,” Dadourian said. “Our job was to identify the operators who understood the property’s long-term hospitality potential and had the ability to execute.”

For more information, please contact Stephen Dadourian or visit www.matthews.com.

About Matthews™

Matthews™, a commercial real estate investment services and technology firm, holds recognition as an industry leader in investment sales, leasing, and debt and structured finance. Based out of Nashville, TN, and strategically positioned with over 1,000 agents and employees in 30 offices across the United States, Matthews™ continues to focus on expansion into new markets. For more information, please visit www.matthews.com.