All stories about "Sam Chang"

OK, not really, but that's kinda how this press release from Eastern Consolidated officially announcing the massive sale of a Financial District property to McSam Hotel Group overlord Sam Chang reads. Here's the quote from Eastern Consolidated Director David Johnson, who represented the seller of 6 Water Street, Richard Breton:

"Breton ultimately hired Eastern Consolidated and although we marketed the site widely, reaching out globally to more than 1,000 investors and developers, Sam Chang still emerged the winner, bidding a record-breaking price of $56 million to acquire the unique 8,300-square-foot site fronting three streets, which allows for 125,000 square feet buildable.”

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Prolific and sometimes reviled hotel developer Sam Chang, of the McSam Hotel Group, has been divesting himself of Lower Manhattan properties lately, unloading a Stone Street parking lot for a whopping $60 million and granting the Pussycat Lounge a stay of execution by selling the Greenwich Street building to the strip club's owner. It was thought that the credit crunch was hitting Chang hard, but the man is unpredictable, so he's gone back to the buyer's table. The Post's Lois Weiss reports today that Chang bought a pair of FiDi properties for a combined $56 million, though the deal was signed back in November. Bound for redevelopment are 6-12 Water Street, a five-story building now home to a classy looking McDonald's, and the seven-story loft building behind it, 32-38 Pearl Street. Does the Financial District really need another McSam hotel, what would be the 47 millionth planned in the next few years? Maybe, maybe not. We'll see if Chang flips this one, too.
· An Apple May Grow Downtown [NYP]
· Curbed's Sam Chang coverage [Curbed]

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"Say what you want about Sam Chang," a developer once told us, in reference to the prolific hotel developer who now finds himself in a financial pickle. "But even when he messes up deals or properties, he just sells them and still makes money." And while the story of 8 Stone Street in the Financial District doesn't appear to be a Chang mess-up, he sure did make money! The property (a former parking lot, as seen in this 2005 photo from PropertyShark), was scheduled to become a 42-story Doubletree hotel developed by Chang's McSam Hotel Group. But now that Chang is a little cash-strapped, he's sold off the land to a Rhode Island hotel developer called Magna Hospitality Group, The Real Deal reports. The deal closed yesterday for $60 million. Sam Chang bought the property in January 2007 for $17 million. That's a $43 million flip for a chunk of FiDi pavement. Sam Chang, we begrudgingly salute you.
· McSam sells FiDi lot for $60 million [TRD]
· Sam Chang's McHotel Empire in a Bit of Trouble [Curbed]
· All Lower Manhattan Hotel Secrets Revealed! [Curbed]

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Sam Chang needs no introduction around these parts, but for those with little knowledge regarding the McSam Hotel Group boss, all you need to know is that he's the developer of the year, yet the Bronx would rather have a chicken slaughterhouse than one of his hotels. Also, he doesn't like Brooklyn but he does like this. Chang has made a fortune building cheap, ugly hotels on the quick and then selling them off just as fast, but Crain's reports today that our man Sam is in a rough spot. The credit crunch is hitting the McSam Hotel Group hard, jeopardizing the 25 hotels Chang currently has under construction, and the 15 more in the pipeline:

The most pressing problem, funding, comes after Mr. Chang raised hundreds of millions of dollars on Wall Street to build Comfort Inns, Best Westerns and other budget properties that investors had shunned.

Mr. Chang's main financier, Credit Suisse, has pulled back dramatically. The entrepreneur is now turning to community banks, which demand that he contribute 40% of the total project cost—double what his former lenders required.

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Sam Chang's actions speak louder than words, and by that we mean all the shit the McSam Hotel Group CEO pulls is highly more entertaining that anything he actually says. Sure, calling Brooklyn over is always a hit, but buying property sight-unseen and building oversized piñatas is practically off the charts in terms of unintentional comedy. Sam Chang understands this, so he's always been a little press shy in the past. But now that he's taking meetings with Donald Trump and nearing his goal of constructing 50 new hotels in the city, The Destroyer is speaking out more and more—such as in this Observer story about his empire. It's a microcosm of the above-described Changmania. "I'm not a movie star, I'm just an investor," he says. Not bad, but not nearly as awesome as the fact that Chang's habit of building Hiltons without actually discussing the matter with Hilton resulted in him being named the company's "Developer of the Year" last winter. Uh, congrats! And if there was such a thing as the Stucco Appreciation Society, we're pretty sure he'd have the lifetime achievement award in the bag, as well.
· Cha-Chang! Sam Chang Builds First, Brands Later [NYO]
· Bronx Prefers Chicken Slaughterhouse to Sam Chang Hotel? [Curbed]
· McSam-O-Rama Mania in Midtown West [Curbed]

Sam Chang, whose McSam Hotel Group is currently building somewhere around 20 hotels around the city, is getting back into the condo game. Hooray! After giving up on the Brooklyn hotel scene and fighting it out in the Bronx, he's returning to where that McSam magic was first made—Alphabet City. Now, it goes against every fiber of our being to post a press release, but this is truly spectacular in so many ways:

In a deal that was transacted virtually in minutes over the telephone, with neither broker nor buyer having viewed the property, the land parcel at 397-401 East 8th Street just traded for $4.9 million to Sam Chang of McSam Hotel Group.

As opposed to a hotel, McSam plans to construct a six-and-a-half-story residential condominium on the site, mimicking another residential condo he built years ago, also in the East Village, on the corner of Avenue D and East 5th Street, which sold out at warp speed.

If hotel developer Sam Chang can't get some love in the Bronx, where are the smooches going to come from? One would think that a McSam hotel would be an improvement on a Bronx Street that features the "cackling of hens ready for slaughter, the tat-a-tat of rivet guns from the next-door mechanic shops, and streetcorner thugs hollering at the young girls who pass by..." Anyone who thinks that, though, is wrong. Among the many outposts of the far-flung Sam Chang McSam Hotel empire is the Comfort Inn he wants to build on Webster Avenue. He thinks, according to today's Daily News, that it will attract tourists visiting the Bronx Zoo and New York Botanical Garden. Residents are worried the sheets will be so hot the steam will be visible for blocks. Regardless, Mr. Chang thinks the Bronx is "a marquee location" and has reintroduced a plan for a five-story, 42-room hotel. There will be contract with the hotel operator that rooms can't be rented hourly. Whoever wants to use one for whatever is going to have to rent by the day.
· Proposed Comfort Inn hotel draws concern from residents [NYDN]
· McSam-A-Rama Mania in Midtown West [Curbed]

It's no surprise that McHotel developer Sam Chang and his go-to architect Gene Kaufman are up to something funky just south of Union Square on Fourth Avenue, but you know, we kind of forgot that the 11-story building-to-be is not only going on top of the existing two-story structure, but is actually being inserted into it. The work has now picked up steam, and sure enough, just the outer wall of the old building remains. Say what you will about McSam Hotel Group projects—and we say a lot!—but this is probably the company's most restrained Manhattan project to date, despite its wackiness.

Yesterday, architect Gene Kaufman, developer Sam Chang and Hotel Le Bleu GM Robert Gaeta sat on a panel to discuss Brooklyn hotel development. As a preventative measure, Robert Scarano and Karl Fischer were whisked off to underground bunkers so that if someone from Wired New York tried to firebomb the building, there would still be people left to ruin the city. Brownstoner has the full report of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce-sponsored affair, and it's absolutely spectacular. In fact, we're giving it the numbered list treatment...

We first noted architect Peter Poon about six months back when his homage to dryvit made its appearance just south of Times Square. This week, we were reminded of Poon again, with his troublesome new hotel going up on Watts Street. That's the blue metallic one above, hovering over Kool Bloo as it rises in Hudson Square. After visiting the Peter Poon Architects website, we just can't get Mr. Poon out of our minds.

Has hotelier Sam Chang completely gone mad with power? As his McSam Hotel Group spreads its reign of dryvit terror to roughly 30,000 new ugly buildings around town (like this and this and this), Chang is now going after that holy sacred of sacreds: the Pussycat Lounge—the best/worst strip club in town. Chang bought the PL-housing 96 Greenwich Street in 2005, so the situation is nothing new. In fact, club owner Robert Kremer is trying to get the building landmarked. But what we didn't know before were the plans. The Observer's Chris Shott reports that Chang—who is building three large hotels around 96 Greenwich including a 300-room one right next door—and his architect hitman Gene Kaufman want to flatten the Pussycat Lounge and turn it into a driveway. Wow, if that's not rubbing it in (worse than making it a bank?), we don't know what is. The landmarking proposal is still on LPC boss Robert Tierner's desk, but it's not looking good Wall Streeters who like getting their jollies near work.
· Fussy Pussycat to Hungry Hotelier: Hands Off Old New York! Me-OW! [NYO]
· McSam-O-Rama Mania in Midtown West [Curbed]
· More McSamming Down at 50 Trinity Place [Curbed]
· Sam Chang's City Takeover Continues Unabated [Curbed]

[McSammers doing test drilling at 308 West 40th Street]

The man with some of the deepest pockets this side of Taipei, hotelier Sam Chang of the colorful McSam Hotel dynasty, has recently grabbed yet another development spot on what must now be the hoteliest block in town. 308 West 40th Street, a funky brick thing amidst a string of old-timey Times Square peep-o-ramas, now belongs to Chang and partners, registered under the name "RS 308 W 40, LLC". If all goes according to plan they will soon be bringing another batch of beds to booming Times Square. This latest McSam site is technically part of the Hudson Yards Special District, and under the applicable zoning regulations they can build higher there IF they "contribute" to the HYD Improvement Fund. And so Chang and friends have done just that. To the tune of $2 Million Bucks!!!.

[The existing 3-story building at 50 Trinity Place and the McSam 40-story plan]

As a follow-up to yesterday's report on hotel inserter Sam Chang and his insertion plan near Union Square we have news of yet another McSam hotel project. This one is in the works downtown in an area fleetingly tagged Trinity Park but better described as "below the World Trade Center site" where an old but elegant beauty awaits her fate. Will she be subject to insertion? The prospects don't appear to be too good.

[The plan for 132 Fourth Avenue and the existing building, complete with awnings]

As a follow-up to our recent report regarding prolific hotel developer Sam Chang and his latest McSam project we now bring you something entirely different: Adaptive Re-Use, McSam-Style. Under the name Rising Sun (perhaps that should be Rising SAM?) a new-ish 11-story Gene Kaufman-designed structure will be inserted within the existing 2-story little beauty at the SW corner of E. 13th Street and Fourth Avenue just below Union Square, a site we bumbled about last winter.

We've been waiting forever for the latest renderings of the Frank Gehry/Bruce Ratner mega-super-duper-deluxe residential tower set to rise down on Beekman and William Streets near City Hall. Now comes word that hotelier extraordinaire Sam Chang of the McSam Hotel Group has enlisted his buddy, Architect Gene Kaufman, to design what is being touted as a 4-Star hotel with OUTSIDE ELEVATORS. It will rise on what is now a nasty parking lot at 33 Beekman Street, just to the south of where Gehry's gang has been driving piles for months now.

While the issues with Sam Chang and his McSam Hotel Group are well documented—are very well documented—to this point we've had no reaction from the man himself. But we're thinking that maybe this McSam project on 24th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues is his way of saying "Eff off!" without actually having to say it. Or, as a phototipster put it: "Wonder what reaction the architect is hoping to spark in this hotel's future guests as they step from their cabs to check in . . . Giant Pez dispenser? LegoLand? Early 1970's 'municipal mistake' revival?" Um, all of the above?

Crazed developer Sam Chang and his McSam gang can't stop rattling their new neighbors down on Canal Street. The Department of Buildings has now slapped the wants-to-be-a 360 Room Sheraton Hotel site with its third stop-work order since work began a few months back. Maybe Sam is just trying to juggle too many projects.

[Photo courtesy of PropertyShark]

To many we come in contact with, Sam Chang—and his McSam Hotel Group—is destroying New York City with his toss-'em-up-ASAP hotel projects. That's really an argument for another time. We come not to praise Chang, nor to bury him. Instead, let's just have a look at the scale of what this man is working on right now (if you want background, this is a good start). We've touched on a variety of his projects before, and as Steve Cuozzo reports in the Post today, McSam has nearly 4,000 rooms under construction at around 20 sites. One of the freshest, Cuozzo reports, is 20 West 56th Street (above), which McSam just acquired for $7.5 million. The current five-story building will be knocked down for a 14-story inn, with no additional air rights needed to get the thing built.