Sam Chang to buy vacant Koreatown site for $42.5M

Sam Chang is snapping up a vacant Koreatown development site at 292 Fifth Avenue from fellow hotelier Richard Born for $42.5 million.

The site can accommodate around 70,000 square feet of space, Crain’s reported.

Born — who heads BD Hotels and is known for developing places like the Mercer and Stanhope Hotels — bought the three adjacent buildings at 292, 294 and 296 Fifth Avenue in 2013. He had torn them down, and had filed plans for a 20-story building with 57,000 square feet of hotel space and almost 12,000 square of apartments, according to the publication. Chang’s plans for the building are not yet clear.

Cushman & Wakefield’s [TRDataCustom] Bob Knakal, John Ciraulo and Jonathan Hageman marketed the site.

Chang, one of the city’s most prolific hotel developers, has been particularly active in the Garment District. In October, his Great Neck-based company McSam Hotel Group filed plans with the city to replace a one-story retail strip with a 252-key hotel at 523-529 Eighth Avenue.

In April, the hotelier partnered with Marriott to build five new ground-up hotel projects across the city.

Earlier this year, Born’s BD Hotels bought a stake in the landmarked Hotel Chelsea at 222 West 23rd Street. The company plans to renovate and reopen it with 120-plus hotel rooms by 2018.  The hotelier is also planning a 350-unit residential building in Hells Kitchen. [Crain’s] — Miriam Hall