Colonial House Inn gets new owner

The Colonial House Inn, a Chelsea
bed and breakfast, is under new ownership. The inn, at 318 West 22nd Street, between Eighth and
Ninth avenues, was started by the late music mogul and gay rights activist Mel
Cheren, and was sold by Cheren’s estate for $6.757 million.

The sale of the
four-story building was made public on November 21. The new owner, identified
only as West 22nd Street
LLC, plans to keep the building running as a bed and breakfast, said Jim Mann,
a principal at Reilly Mann Newell Realty Group. Another principal at Reilly
Mann Newell, Wells Newell, co-brokered the deal on behalf of the buyer with Cynthia Crowley of Olshan Realty.

Rates
at the 20-room inn range from $130 to $180 per night. The building was on the
market for about two months and sold within 10 percent less than the asking price,
Mann said.

The inn was a single-room-occupancy building until 1982 when Cheren
donated the rooms to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and then renovated the
building in 1985 to transform it into a bed and breakfast. TRD