Sam Chang

From The Real Deal: "Hotel developer Sam Chang of the McSam Hotel Group and a partner sold their newly opened Wyndham Garden Hotel Manhattan Chelsea West, for $39.06 million, according to property records published today. The 17-story hotel with 124 rooms opened last week at 37 West 24th Street, a hotel employee said."

For more Observer coverage on the prolific Mr. Chang, including another Chelsea hotel trade, click here.

Some hoteliers buck received wisdom, taking chances on fringe neighborhoods in far-away boroughs (see Sam Chang). Others trust blindly in the perpetual worth of a brand called Manhattan (see Sam Chang?). Only time will tell which group the following three developers fall into, all of whom filed plans with the Buildings Department in the past two weeks to build new hotels in Manhattan.

First, there’s the apparently unstoppable Mr. Chang, who filed plans on Oct. 30 to bestow yet another Gene Kaufman-designed gem on Manhattan, this one an 11-story pension at 538 West 48th Street.

Mr. Chang has over the past few years flooded New York City streets with suburban-style inns.

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Sam Chang has sold Hampton Inn Empire State Building, at 57 West 35th Street, for $46 million, according to city records.

Mr. Chang purchased the development site in 2006 for $13.3 million.

The Hampton Inn, well situated between Fifth and Sixth avenues, near Herald Square, is just the latest McSam hotel to fall into the hands of the Rhode Island-based Magna Hospitality Group.

Earlier this fall, Mr. Chang sold Magna his new Holiday Inn Manhattan Hotel in Chelsea for $66 million. And earlier this year, he sold the firm 8 Stone Street in the Financial District, 60 West 36th Street and 231 East 43rd Street.  read more »

So much for hitting the brakes.

Sam Chang, New York's hotelier for the common man, strikes again.

This week he filed an application with the Buildings Department to build a 25-story hotel at 54 West 36th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, near Herald Square.

This will, of course, be the gazillionth hotel Mr. Chang has built in New York over the past few years - a pace The Real Deal in December 2006 dubbed "dizzying":

Christyne Nicholas, the city's tourism czar, estimated that Chang is building 3,000 out of the 5,000 rooms under construction in the city. An analysis by The Real Deal that looked at Chang's longer-term plans through 2008 found even more units in the pipeline -- some 5,900 units out of approximately 13,000 units planned in the city.

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Sheesan Hotel LLC, an affiliate of economy hotel tycoon Sam Chang, has sold the new Holiday Inn Manhattan Hotel in Chelsea for $66 million to a Rhode Island-based hospitality group, according to records uploaded on Friday to a city Web site.

The buyer, MMG-26 LLC, affiliated with Magna Hospitality Group, closed on the 23-story, 226-room hotel, at 121 West 26th Street, on June 30.

This isn't the first time Mr. Chang has sold property to Magna. This year alone, he sold the Rhode Island firm 8 Stone Street in the Financial District, 60 West 36th Street and 231 East 43rd Street.  read more »

With at least eight years left before a set of new rail tunnels under the Hudson River are scheduled to be built and functioning, developer Sam Chang has already begun to reap benefits from the project. That's because the voracious builder of cookie-cutter hotels bought a $24 million West Side parking lot last November—a lot that just happened to be the same site the Port Authority needs in order to build the more than $7 billion project, called Access to the Region's Core (ARC).

Since then, the number of developers and landlords buying any city property has fallen off a cliff amid an impossible financing market, and brokers report that the bulk of sales that do happen have noticeably lower prices.  read more »

After a lengthy legal fight, ravenous hotel developer Sam Chang has apparently given up his plan to tear down the old Pussycat Lounge at 96 Greenwich Street.

Mr. Chang has agreed to sell the ancient, circa-1799 building to Pussycat owner Robert Kremer for $2.5 million, according to city records -- that's $1 million less than Mr. Chang paid for it in 2005.  read more »

Hotelier to the masses Sam Chang continues to retrench amidst market turmoil, selling a Financial District lot to Magna Hospitality for $60 million, according to a report in The Real Deal.  read more »

Voracious hotel developer Sam Chang has acquired yet another piece of Manhattan.

City records show that Mr. Chang's Great Neck, N.Y., company has paid $27 million for a building at 6-12 Water Street.

According to PropertyShark.com, the 21,000-square-foot building includes a two-story McDonald's -- quite appropriate for the McSam gang.

Prolific hotelier Sam Chang just keeps on a-wheelin' and a-dealin'.

One day, he's selling his unfinished Sheraton on Canal Street for $83.5 million, according to The Real Deal.

A few days later, he picks up a new site for $24 million, according to city records. Mr. Chang's latest acquisition, at 431 West 33rd Street, is, according to PropertyShark.com, a 7,000-square-foot parking lot.

Now, the voracious developer may not be known for his valet skills, but he did build a Holiday Inn Express.

One can only assume another McSam hotel is in the works. But which chain? Hilton? Comfort Inn? Candlewood Suites? Stay tuned.

New York's "build now brand later" hotel king, Sam Chang, has sold his Holiday Inn Express in Times Square for $42 million, according to city records--and the hotel has not even opened yet.  read more »

Ravenous hotel developer Sam Chang continues to devour buildings in the Financial District.

Just a month ago, 99 Washington Street, site of Mr. Chang's forthcoming 350-room Holiday Inn, was still standing--albeit shrouded in a death-black curtain (pictured left).Over the past several weeks, crews have dismantled almost the entire building (right).

Next up to come down: 50 Trinity Place, just one block away, site of an unnamed 186-room McSam hotel. (The demolition permit was issued Jan. 12.)

Both hotels are scheduled for Mid 2009 opening.

Sam Chang is at it again!

According to public records, the voracious developer has snatched up yet another plot of land, this time in Hell's Kitchen, paying $6.6 million for the current Pace Auto Parts Inc., building at 548 West 48th Street.

What will become of the lot?

Another hotel?

Condominiums?

A condo-hotel?

Stay tuned.

Sam Chang isn’t your typical New York hotel developer.

While others strive to emulate the chic boutique model, popularized by luxury lodging pioneer Ian Schrager, Mr. Chang has taken an alternative approach, bringing the suburban-style comforts of national hotel chains to urban explorers across the five boroughs.

Sure, even Mr. Schrager himself has a new line of hostelries now in the works under the Marriott moniker. But it’s hard to imagine him ever erecting a Holiday Inn Express, Comfort Inn or Candlewood Suites—much less sticking them all on the same block, as Mr. Chang is doing on West 39th Street.  read more »

Prolific hotelier Sam Chang has sold a lot at 121 West 28th Street to a North Carolina-based firm for $55 million, according to city records.

The Chelsea lot is zoned for hotel construction, according to PropertyShark.com. We have a call out to buyer Inland American Winston Hotels. According to the company's Web site, it already has two hotels in New York State, but none in the city; one in Albany is a Hilton Garden Inn and one in White Plains is a Hampton Inn.

Can anyone in the New York City hotel business keep up with Sam Chang?

On June 11, the prolific hotelier purchased the Whitehouse Hotel at 338 Bowery for $7.8 million, according to city records.

However, unlike a number of properties that Mr. Chang has purchased, he has no immediate plans to change anything about the hotel.

“At this time, I have no plans to develop anything on the property,” Mr. Chang told The Observer. “I think that eventually we will build something, but as for now, nothing will change.”  read more »

• Down in DUMBO and Vinegar Hill, there's a bunch of "brash adolescents swaggering around a yard of surly and sober old-timers." Those adolescents are condos, of course, and they've "emerged from hardcore puberty growth spurts." [Gothamist]
• Scandal! Bribery! Cat-fights! A pair of huge local hotel developers (and ex-partners) John Lam and Sam Chang are "battling over a subcontractor that one claims the other tried to lure away illegally." Manhattan is the new LA. [The Real Deal]
• The American Society of Interior Designers has released a five-part series of "sustainable design white papers." Question #716c: is gold lame recycleable? [I.D.]
• Today's pedestrian death in Brooklyn Heights "is not an isolated event," and, in fact, six people have been killed at Henry and Montague streets since the mid-90s. There's even a scary homemade map with little statistics/illustrations. [Streetsblog]
- Max Abelson
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