[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.
Of course, everyone's favorite McSam project is the massive plan for West 39th Street, around the Lincoln Tunnel, where six hotels are on the way. They will be an assortment of Hampton Inns, Holiday Inn Expresses, Hilton Whateverthefucks, etc., and the Real Deal has the complete scoop on that. You can see four of the planned hotels on the right. Of the above picture, a tipster writes:
It appears that the six hotels on 39th Street are underway. The buildings seem to take their design direction from the Port Authority Bus Terminal rather than the new Times Tower. (UGLY) The renderings show a set of buildings that are a mix of unsightliness.OK, that person's not really a fan.
But wait, there's more! The watery grave above is 370 Canal Street, another McSam site. This was sent in last week by another Curbed tipster, who also offers up his two cents:
More McSam Misery. Another Sam Chang fiasco, the 370 Canal St. 20 story hotel project has received its second work stop order from DOB in a few months, this time, for failure to drain the site. Along with his other Tribeca neighborhood failures, the Duane St. Hotel is still not finished after 6 years and his York St. Hilton Garden Hotel remains dormant with over 5 years of construction. Seems like his new project will take a very long time to finish.So there you have it, a glimpse at McSam Mania, for better or worse.
· Hotel King's Latest [NYPost]
· One block, six hotels planned [Real Deal]