In November, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the lifting and reconfiguration of the landmarked Palace Theater at 1564 Broadway. Now, thanks to EB-5 documents, we have full renderings of what the DoubleTree Hotel site surrounding it will look like once the redevelopment is finished.

Indianapolis-based Maefield Development purchased the property for $540 million. They worked with the Nederlander Organization, which runs the Palace Theater, PBDW Architects, and preservation consultants Higgins Quasebarth & Partners to come up with a plan to literally raise the entire theater and reconfigure it to allow for a larger lobby and more back of house space.

The changes to the theater are to allow the redevelopment of the hotel that surrounds it. That includes new retail space below the theater, and a large new LED screen on the exterior. It also includes an overall redevelopment of the 45-story hotel tower, which uses the address 1568 Broadway.

Not much is known about the redevelopment at this point, except that there will be 704 rooms and the rendering shows that the aforementioned LED screen is so big it wraps from the southern end of the building on Seventh Avenue all the way to the eastern end of the building on West 47th Street.

EB-5 documents indicate the signage will measure 17,000 square feet in total. That will fall just 1,000 square feet shy of the world’s largest sign, which is also under construction at 7 Times Square, directly across the street from the DoubleTree. Even amongst the bright lights of Times Square, the additional wattage from the two projects combined will be quite substantial.

Actual construction permits have not yet been filed, but early applications indicate the possibility that there will also be condominium units on the site.

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