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.
Mr. Chang bought the lot at 8 Stone Street last year for $17 million, apparently planning to build a Doubletree Hotel on the site. The hotelier has worked extensively with Magna Hospitality, a Rhode Island-based firm. Last month, he sold two sites in Midtown to Magna, and has also hired the firm to manage some of his hotels.
Mr. Chang is known in the New York hospitality world for spearheading the development of moderately priced hotels throughout the city – with plans for up to 50! – including in the outer boroughs.
That is, until the recent credit crunch got in the way.
“The tightening credit market is slowing me down,” as Mr. Chang recently told Crain’s. “Right now, we are playing defense, trying to finish what we have in the pipeline.”
