Sam Chang can now purchase 160 elite racing pigeons

Buyer Masterworks Development Corporation also secured a $36 million mortgage for the deal

Sam Chang and 40 West 45th Street (Credit: Google Maps and iStock)
Sam Chang and 40 West 45th Street (Credit: Google Maps and iStock)

Hotel developer Sam Chang is back to unloading his real estate, and the proceeds could go to the birds — literally.

Chang sold the Club Quarters Hotel at 40 West 45th Street in Midtown for a little over $64 million, property records show.

The most prolific budget hotelier in the city recently announced that he is retiring from real estate, in part because of a City Council zoning change that restricted hotel development in manufacturing zones. In the midst of reducing his hotel holdings, his retirement plans include focusing on his hobby of pigeon racing.

The cost of acquiring elite racing pigeons has exploded in recent years, where top sales hovered around the $400,000 mark until a Chinese buyer in March spent a record $1.4 million on Armando, the “Lewis Hamilton” of racing birds.

Chang did not immediately return a request for comment.

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The buyer of the hotel at 40 West 45th Street was an entity linked to Masterworks Development Corporation, which manages the Club Quarters hotel and also secured a $36 million mortgage for the deal from M&T Bank. Representatives for Masterworks couldn’t immediately be reached.

Chang’s Great Neck-based McSam Hotel Group bought the 13-story hotel, which sits between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and dates to the early 1900s, for $58.7 million in 2016. With over 140 rooms, the hotel opened in the early 1990s and was Club Quarters’ first location.
Earlier this year, McSam Hotel Group parted with a Garment District hotel for $274.3 million. Buyer Magna Hospitality Group also had bought a development site from McSam for $113 million.

But Chang has made at least one purchase of late. McSam Hotel Group picked up a parking garage off Mulberry Street in Chinatown for $18.75 million.

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