Boutique hotel to replace Bowery shelter

The former site of a Salvation Army shelter at 347-349 Bowery is slated to become a 65-room boutique hotel and restaurant. According to the Post, the Paris-based Louzon Group has purchased the corner building at East 4th Street for $6.7 million, tapping Gene Kaufman as the architect. The building, which is now vacant, was targeted for conversion into a high-end sushi restaurant and nightclub in 2009, but those plans got derailed over community complaints, Curbed reported. The restaurant’s backers threatened that if their plans didn’t get approved, the site would be targeted for a much larger condominium or hotel. Now, the future hotel is located between a new luxury condo tower and a religious space recently purchased by Chabad of New York University, and the Bowery Hotel. [Post, 3rd item] and [Curbed]