Dealmaker: Lightstone Receives $91M to Build Moxy East Village Hotel

Lightstone, New York, received $91 million in financing from Bank of the Ozarks, Little Rock, Ark., to build its third New York City Moxy hotel.

Lightstone plans to develop a 13-story, 285-key Moxy hotel at 112-120 East 11th Street in partnership with Marriott. Marketed toward Millennials, Moxy hotels have smaller guest rooms than most hotels with technologically advanced amenities and space for co-working.

Moxy East Village will be south of Union Square in Manhattan’s East Village across from Webster Hall. Lightstone President Mitchell Hochberg said the firm selected the location due to the East Village’s restaurant scene and nightlife. 

Curbed New York reported five tenement buildings between Third and Fourth avenues were demolished last summer to make way for the property. The hotel’s design references the city’s past; each floor reveals a different layer in lower Manhattan’s history in a “vertical timeline.”

Hochberg said Lightstone plans to develop 1,500 Moxy hotel rooms in New York City, including the brand’s 612-room flagship property in Times Square that opened last fall as well as Moxy Chelsea, which will open this fall. The company is developing seven Moxy properties across the nation, including in South Beach, Miami, downtown Los Angeles and West Hollywood.

Bank of the Ozarks announced last week it will change its name to Bank OZK as part of a strategic rebranding. The bank’s assets have grown from $307 million to $21.3 billion since going public in 1997.