{"id":352604,"date":"2026-09-21T17:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T17:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/352604\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T17:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T17:26:09","slug":"jeff-suttons-planned-340-key-midtown-hotel-enters-the-demolition-phase-commercial-observer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/352604\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Sutton\u2019s Planned 340-Key Midtown Hotel Enters the Demolition Phase \u2013 Commercial Observer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Herald Square commercial site owned by Jeff Sutton\u2019s Wharton Properties<\/a> is headed for the wrecking ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Florida-based hospitality developer Keyah Real Estate Group<\/a> filed plans with the city\u2019s Department of Buildings last week to demolish the two retail buildings at 27\u201329 West 34th Street and 21-25 West 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The application, first reported by the New York Business Journal<\/a>, paves the way for Wharton\u2019s longtime plans<\/a> to replace the low-lying buildings with a 26-story hotel.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: The Plan: NYC\u2019s First Flight Club Aims for a Bull\u2019s-Eye at 31 Union Square West<\/a><\/p>\n

The demolition filing follows the closure of British clothing retailer Superdry<\/a>\u2019s two-story store at 25 West 34th Street. Next door sits 29 West 34th Street, a three-story retail building most recently home to a closed souvenir shop. The latter building was under threat of foreclosure<\/a> by German bank Helaba a little more than a year ago, The Real Deal reported<\/a>. Wharton regained control of the property<\/a> after the lawsuit was settled last month.<\/p>\n

Site plans filed by Wharton in August describe a 205,000-square-foot hotel to be constructed on the retail buildings\u2019 15,000-square-foot lot. The development designed by Manhattan-based firm SRA Architecture + Engineering<\/a> would include 340 rooms and a rooftop terrace.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wharton acquired the properties and a third adjacent building in 2006 alongside SL Green Realty, and later bought out the partner\u2019s stake, according to TRD.<\/p>\n

The developer\u2019s repositioning plans at the site date back to 2021, when the scheme consisted of a 176,375-square-foot hotel and retail building at 25 West 34th Street. Hotel and short-term rental provider Sonder was the development\u2019s key tenant, Commercial Observer reported<\/a>, but that company collapsed under bankruptcy<\/a> in late 2025. It is unclear whether a new operator has been tapped for Wharton\u2019s expanded hotel plans.<\/p>\n

The planned demotion of the 38,000 square feet of commercial space at Nos. 25 and 29 follows a difficult few years for Herald Square\u2019s retail scene. The 34th Street corridor between Fifth and Seventh avenues tracked a 30.5 percent availability rate in the second quarter of this year, according to Cushman & Wakefield data. That figure, although an improvement from 2025, towered above the citywide average of 11.6 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for Wharton and Keyah did not respond to requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emily Davis can be reached at edavis@commercialobserver.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Herald Square commercial site owned by Jeff Sutton\u2019s Wharton Properties is headed for the wrecking ball.\u00a0 Florida-based…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[131569,131570,131571,3624,1527,131568,2176,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-352604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-25-west-34th-street","tag-27-29-west-34th-street","tag-29-west-34th-street","tag-channel","tag-construction","tag-development-21-25-west-34th-street","tag-jeff-sutton","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}