Sure, you see a vacant lot in this picture of 611 DeGraw St., between Third and Fourth avenues — but a developer sees yet another hotel in the so-called Gowanus Canal Hotel District.
An unidentified builder just paid $1.4 million for this lot — which can support a 10,000-square-foot hotel under current zoning.
Ken Freeman at Massey Knakal, which brokered the deal, said the manufacturing-zoned lot sold for so much because the new owner “is capable of taking advantage of the available air rights,” most likely up to eight stories.
The hotel is one of five that are now proposed for the area, joining Hotel Le Bleu, the Holiday Inn Express and the Comfort Inn that are already operating.
The sale of the lot is likely to draw fire from Councilman Bill DeBlasio (D–Park Slope), who recently called for a moratorium on new hotels on manufacturing-zoned land in the Gowanus corridor.— Gersh Kuntzman
