City Plans New Shelter at Former FiDi Hotel
The administration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani has designated an operator for a new shelter in a Financial District building. The former Radisson New York Wall Street Hotel at 52 William Street (near Pine Street, a half block from Fosun Plaza) closed in 2020 amid the Covid pandemic, but was quickly requisitioned by the administration of then-Mayor Bill de Blaiso as an emergency quarantine shelter for homeless people who tested positive for the virus. By the end of that year, City Hall had decided to convert the building into a permanent shelter.
This operation wound down in 2022, when the administration of Mr. de Blaiso’s successor, Eric Adams, announced that the 52 William Street facility would be closed. But this decision was partially rescinded the following year, when the Adams administration needed space for more than 100,000 migrants who were bussed to New York from states such as Texas and Florida.
Since then, as the influx of migrants tapered off, the 276-room former hotel has apparently been hosting a few dozen recipients of public benefits, but has not operated as a large-scale shelter. (Precise numbers are unavailable, because the City generally seeks to avoid disclosing the details about shelters, both to protect the privacy of those who reside in them and to forestall community opposition.)
The building housing the Radisson New York Wall Street Hotel was purchased by the Slate Property Group for $95 million in 2024. In some ways, operating a shelter there will be a reprise for the firm, which purchased another insolvent Lower Manhattan hotel—the former Hampton Inn at 320 Pearl Street—for $24.1 million in 2023.
Slate partnered with a non-profit provider of homeless services and signed a contract with the City to operate a shelter at 320 Pearl. The firm, which operates as the for-profit landlord of non-profit tenants that manage shelters, has spent more than $300 million in recent years purchasing sites on which to develop new homeless facilities. Slate now operates ten homeless shelters across Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens, and recently refinanced the debt underpinning this portfolio with a $210 million loan from JP Morgan Chase.
Slate recently signed a 30-year lease with another non-profit provider of homeless services to operate the shelter at 52 William Street. This organization, Highland Park Community Development (HPCD), oversees six other homeless shelters in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan.
HPCD has renamed the facility the Wall Street Sanctuary, and plans to operate it as a “Tier 2” shelter for families with adult children. The Tier 2 designation refers to shelters containing rooms with private baths and cooking facilities.
Keith Whyte, a senior program director with HPCD, who will be overseeing the the Wall Street Sanctuary shelter, outlined the organization’s plans for 52 William Street at the April 15 meeting of the Quality of Life Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1). “We’re going to be offering services for housing placements,” Mr. Whyte said, explaining that the program is designed to help residents make the transition from homeless shelters to permanent homes. “We’ll be offering social services for case management.” He predicted that as the population within the building grows to fill all 276 units, “we’ll have about 122 employees. More than 50 of those will be for security.” Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be provided for all residents each day.
William Ruiz, HPCD’s executive director, added, “any of us here, we’re two paychecks away from being homeless. We have to knock on wood that we have a place to go home to. Our job is to make sure that these people have a home, as well.”
Mr. Whyte added that HPCD anticipates taking over management of the 52 William Street shelter no later than June 1.