A century-old Midtown hotel with a chemistry-club past has changed hands for $95 million, giving Barcelona-based Eurostars a new Manhattan foothold near Grand Central. The Chemists’ Club Hotel has 107 rooms and is being acquired from Spanish investment firm Azora.
The Real Deal reported that the sale works out to roughly $888,000 per key. Eastdil secured advised Azora on the transaction, which involves a non-union hotel in one of the city’s most tightly packed lodging corridors.
Eurostars Hotel Company is part of Barcelona-based Grupo Hotusa, which says its hotel division operates more than 300 properties across 24 countries. The acquisition adds to the company’s U.S. presence, which includes hotels in Boston, Chicago, Miami, Washington, D.C., and New York’s Wall Street district, according to the Eurostars Hotel Company.
A Chemistry Club Building With Several Lives
The property began life as the headquarters of The Chemists’ Club, a private organization founded in 1898 for scientists and others working in the chemistry profession. The building opened in 1911 with meeting rooms, dining spaces, rental laboratories and a major chemical research library, according to the Chemists’ Club Hotel.
It later became the Dylan Hotel before being renovated and rebranded as The Chemists’ Club Hotel in 2024. Benjamin Steakhouse has occupied the main floor since 2006, and the restaurant says its space still features the building’s high ceilings, brass chandeliers and a 10-foot working fireplace, per Benjamin Steakhouse.
The building has also had a brief brush with early-2000s celebrity restaurant culture: Britney Spears opened the short-lived NYLA restaurant there in 2002. These days, however, the property’s appeal is less pop-star spectacle than a well-located historic shell with a functioning hotel business already in place.
Deal Arrives As NYC Hotels Regain Their Footing
The purchase comes as New York’s hotel market is showing strong demand, even though the recovery remains uneven. The Office of the New York State Comptroller said the city welcomed 65 million visitors in 2025, while hotel occupancy reached 84.1%, the highest among major U.S. markets for the third consecutive year.
That same report found that New York hotels employed 45,325 workers in 2025, still 12.9% below 2019 levels. For Eurostars, the Midtown acquisition offers a chance to scale in a market where room demand and average rates have rebounded faster than the industry’s employment base.
