Hotelier Ian Schrager and investors including developer Steve Witkoff paid approximately $50 million for a site at 215 Chrystie Street last week. The move that will bring a controversial mixed-use development to the Lower East Side, after a deal with the tenants of an adjacent building at 10 Stanton Street, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Schrager bought the site from a group led by landlord Rubin Schron, who also owns the adjacent building at 10 Stanton Street. Schron won approval from the city for a plan to put the tower on the site — greatly increasing the value of the site — prior to the sale. He had faced opposition from Communtiy Board 3, but eventually won them over with a deal to extend rent regulation at 10 Stanton, with rent subsidies provided by the federal government and access to the new structure’s rooftop recreation area.
Plans for the new boutique hotel currently call for 25 stories — the first 17 floors hotel and the remainder residential, according to plans filed with the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals cited by the Journal. A source told the Journal that Schrager plans make the hotel part of his new brand known as Public — a design heavy but more affordable hotel brand — after plans to debut the brand with a hotel near Herald Square dissolved. [WSJ] –Christopher Cameron