Controversial LES hotel site trades to Ian Schrager for $50M

Ian Schrager, 215 Chrystie Street and Rubin Schron
Ian Schrager, 215 Chrystie Street and Rubin Schron

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.

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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