Edelstein rumored to have purchased Hotel Chelsea at big discount

Is the Hotel Chelsea sale a done deal? The rumor mill has been churning out a slew of new reports today about the impending transfer of power at The Legendary West 23rd Street landmark, and tenant-written blog Living With Legends has heard that Tristar Capital head David Edelstein has emerged the winner. The Post had reported last month that Edelstein, a former cab driver and the developer behind the W Hotels in South Beach and London, was the current front-runner for the 250-room hotel, and that he was likely convert the property to a condominium. According to Living With Legends, the Chelsea’s current general manager, Arnold Tamasar, told several tenants that Edelstein had won the bidding against a pool of hoteliers including Andre Balazs and Ian Schrager, but would still be paying “significantly less” than the asking price. In a New York Magazine profile of the Hotel Chelsea this week, Jessica Pressler reported the asking price to now be between $70 million and $80 million and said a deal could be signed within days. But in a tweet this afternoon, she said a spokesperson told her the rumor that Edelstein had already purchased the hotel was “100 percent false.” [Living With Legends], [NY Mag] and [Twitter]