A vacant lot on Sixth Avenue that has sat behind construction fencing for years is finally getting its second act: a 41-story hotel tower designed by Stonehill Taylor and developed by The Moinian Group, with work expected to ramp up in the coming weeks. The site at 1146-1150 Sixth Avenue, wedged midblock between West 44th and West 45th Streets, has been an empty gap in the Midtown streetscape since its previous structure came down years ago.
According to New York YIMBY, the new tower will rise as a slender superstructure climbing uniformly to a roof deck topped by a tall bulkhead. Renderings show a reflective glass curtain wall framed with copper-hued paneling, a subtly protruding rectangular volume at the building's center, and a double-height ground floor wrapped in slat paneling and floor-to-ceiling glass. The report notes the project will include an undisclosed number of hotel rooms, with the nearest subway access at the 42nd Street–Bryant Park station, which serves the B, D, F, M, and 7 trains.
Before the tower could take shape, The Moinian Group had to clear away what was already there. The parcel's 7,375 square feet was previously occupied by the eight-story Pan American Magazine Building, which the developer acquired for $39 million in 2011, according to PropertyShark. That structure was later demolished to make way for the project, per the same YIMBY report.
A Project That Stalled, Then Changed Hands Architecturally
The hotel wasn't always destined to look the way current renderings show it. Ismael Leyva Architects initially designed the project, but work ground to a halt in 2020 because of the pandemic, the outlet reports. Stonehill Taylor, the Manhattan-based firm established in 1986 that has shaped projects including the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport, Moxy Chelsea, The Whitby Hotel, and Conrad New York Midtown, per the Hilton Press Room, has since stepped in as the project's new architect of record.
Behind the scenes, the pause coincided with a broader regulatory shift that has reshaped how hotels get built across the five boroughs. In December 2021, the City Council adopted the Citywide Hotels Text Amendment, ending more than a century of as-of-right hotel development and requiring a City Planning Commission special permit through the city's land use review process for new hotels, conversions, or expansions of 20% or more, according to the NYC Department of City Planning. That citywide rule followed an earlier, narrower measure: the December 2018 M1 Hotel Text Amendment, which first imposed special permit requirements on hotel construction in light manufacturing zoning districts, adopted after the city had added 54,000 hotel rooms between 2007 and 2020.
Why Midtown Hotels Look Lucrative Again
The market conditions greeting this tower's revival look very different from the ones it stalled in. New York City led the top 25 U.S. hotel markets in 2025 with an average occupancy rate of 84.2% and an average daily room rate of $334, a 5% increase year-over-year, per Travel Monitor. Those figures track alongside a crackdown on short-term rentals: full enforcement of Local Law 18 in September 2023 wiped out more than 90% of active short-term rental listings, cutting registrations to roughly 3,000 by 2025, according to the NYC Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement, which has pushed more tourist demand back toward traditional hotels.
City tourism officials say the broader visitor economy is also rebounding. New York City welcomed 65.0 million visitors in 2025, generating $84.7 billion in total economic impact, with visitation projected to climb to 66.3 million in 2026, according to NYC Tourism + Conventions. Regional airport data adds to that picture: JFK, Newark Liberty, and LaGuardia airports together handled 142.7 million passengers in 2025, the third-busiest year in Port Authority history, per Road Genius.
Moinian's Broader Hospitality Push
The Sixth Avenue tower isn't an isolated bet for its developer. Founded in 1982 by CEO Joseph Moinian, The Moinian Group holds a national real estate portfolio exceeding 20 million square feet across commercial, residential, and hospitality sectors, according to the Commercial Observer, and its local hospitality footprint already includes the W New York – Downtown Hotel & Residences. In July 2026, the firm delivered the ARIA 7 Platt hotel in Lower Manhattan's Financial District, a 172-key ground-up property that expands its active hospitality development strategy across Manhattan.
New York YIMBY reports that 1146-1150 Sixth Avenue has an anticipated completion date of September 2029, with photos by Michael Young showing the site still vacant behind construction fencing, a marked change from imagery on Google Maps depicting the lot as of December 2014. Whether the project ultimately moved forward under the post-2021 special permit framework or relied on building permits filed before that regulatory shift remains a detail the public record has yet to clarify.
