Former migrant shelter in NYC to become apartments

A former hotel that once catered to tourists — and more recently to asylum seekers — is now preparing for a more permanent kind of guest.

The Watson Hotel, a 19-story, two-tower property at 440 W. 57th St. in Hell’s Kitchen, is slated for a full-scale residential conversion, according to a recent filing with the Department of Buildings. 

Yellowstone Real Estate Investments, which acquired the 600-room hotel for $175 million in 2021, plans to transform it into 249 apartments — complete with an indoor pool, a rooftop terrace, a gaming room, a pet playroom and a cellar-level parking garage, Crain’s first reported. Many other details are not yet known.

The property, which opened in 1964 as a Holiday Inn, was rebranded as the Watson in 2017 and remained popular until the pandemic forced a citywide hospitality slump.

During the COVID-era emergency and amid a surge of migrants arriving in New York City, the hotel was repurposed by the Adams administration as a temporary humanitarian relief center.

That use officially ended in June, one of dozens of such sites to close as the migrant population in city shelters began to decline.

Yellowstone, led by CEO Issac Hera, has been expanding its residential footprint across Midtown.

In March, the firm filed plans to convert 1730 Broadway, a 26-story office tower purchased from Blackstone for $185.9 million, into approximately 400 apartments.

A spokesperson for Yellowstone did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.