The Out is coming out…. to Fire Island. Ian Reisner, owner of New York’s The Out Hotel, has purchased Fire Island Pines at auction, the commercial district along the harbor on Fire Island (on the other side of Long Island). Together with PJ McAteer, owner of the local Sip & Twirl nightclub, he plans to bring the district back to life following the fire that destroyed The Pavilion nightclub back in 2011.
Read morePress Release: Fire Island Pines Sells at Auction for $10.1 Million, New "Pines Hotel" Grand Opening 2016
Ian Reisner and PJ McAteer have bought the 320 feet of dock side frontage making up 80% of the commercial real estate space on Fire Island Pines for $10.1 million.
Read moreNew York Times: Gay Mecca on Fire Island Sells for $10.1 Million at Auction →
A strip of commercial real estate along the harbor in Fire Island Pines sold for $10.1 million at auction on Thursday to developers with plans to continue the revival of a former mecca for closeted gay men.
The sale price was well below the $25 million the previous owners sought when they placed it on the market last fall, and below the $17 million they paid for it in 2010. In a deal hammered out over more than six hours, the property was bought by Ian Reisner, who also owns the Out NYC, a hotel on West 42nd Street in Manhattan that focuses on a gay clientele. The deal is expected to close in February.
Read moreNew York Times: Central Park South, the View That Sneaked Up on the City
Central Park South has long been a reservoir of apartment-house construction, the expansive north views as attractive in the 1870s as they are now. The sweep of its history runs from the long-gone Bradley of 1877 to the modernist 240 Central Park South of 1940 — by way of the original Plaza Hotel of 1882 and the artistic Gainsborough of 1908. But as it turns out, it took awhile for developers to arrive at a full appreciation of Central Park South’s dazzling prospect.
Read moreNew York Times: To Be a Hotel and Gay in New York
Welcome to the Out NYC, whose owners have called it both the first gay hotel in New York and a “straight-friendly urban resort.” Located in way west Clinton between 10th and 11th Avenues, the three-story, 70,000-square-foot hotel, the brainchild of Ian Simpson Reisner, a managing partner of Parkview Developers, has 105 rooms. The XL nightclub and bar are just off the lobby; a restaurant and other amenities are in the works.
So my question was: in a place like New York City, what does being a gay hotel mean, exactly?
Read moreHuffington Post: OUT NYC Hotel, First LGBT Boutique Hotel In New York, To Attract Growing Tourism Trend
The OUT NYC hotel boasts two hot tubs, a secret garden, its own nightclub and the title of Manhattan’s first boutique hotel built specifically to cater to millions of gay tourists to New York.
The hotel, not far from Times Square and Broadway theatres, also hopes to cater to the friends and families of its gay clientele. And so, turning an old concept on its head, the owners of the hotel like to describe it as “straight-friendly.”
Read moreNew York Post: The OUT Inn
New York’s first “straight friendly” gay hotel opened in Hell’s Kitchen yesterday, welcoming the gay and lesbian set to an urban- style resort designed for their tastes.
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