NEW YORK CITY-As GlobeSt.com has reported in the past, Downtown Manhattan is booming. Creative and technology firms are curiously spreading into commercial real estate space below 30th street say CBRE. Further, the firm’s year-end Market Snapshot report found that Midtown South topped its five-year average of deal velocity for the month of November. And finally, downtown retail activity has been hopping thanks to favorable exchange rates and strong tourist volume, according to Marcus & Millichap research.

Now, Thompson Hotels reveals, old will (eventually) become new again: GB Lodging has acquired the impressive and well-known property at 5 Beekman Street. While the purchase price has not been made public, city records show that the last time this building was sold in April 2008, it went for $61 million. Since the building was sitting vacant, this doesn’t really serve as a good indication for the current sale price, which could not be obtained by press time as PR representatives did not return our calls.

However, in the same Thompson statement, Bruce Blum, president and co-founder of GB Lodging, revealed the company’s plans for the space. It will become a “297 room luxury boutique hotel with 90 residences” – a facelift that will change both the building and “adjacent parcel.”

Even in its solitude, the building does have some distinct architectural characteristics, as these images from Scouting NY show. And it seems, according to Thompson, that future plans will preserve the building’s individuality: “We will pay homage to the history and grandeur of this iconic building and combine classic and modern design to create a vibrant community,” says Jason Pomeranc, Commune Hotels & Resorts' co-chairman.