Sam Chang sells Long Island City Holiday Inn for $77M

Deal marks Bayrock Capital’s second Queens hotel buy after Moinian deal

Sam Chang and 37-10 110th Street in Long Island City (Getty, KFIR Capital, McSam Hotel Group)

Sam Chang and 37-10 110th Street in Long Island City (Getty, KFIR Capital, McSam Hotel Group)

UPDATED May 19, 10:45 a.m.: Bayrock Capital can’t get enough of the Queens hotel market.

The Valley Stream-based private investment firm purchased the Holiday Inn at 37-10 10th Street in Long Island City for $76.5 million, The Real Deal has learned. Sam Chang’s McSam Hotel Group sold the 381-key, 114,000-square-foot property. 

The off-market deal works out to $671 per square foot or roughly $200,000 per room.

The purchase is being financed by an all-cash private debt fund deal, according to the transaction broker. The hotel, which was completed just last year, includes a business center, fitness center and snack market.

KFIR Capital’s Jake Blatter represented the buyer and in-house brokers represented the seller.

Bayrock did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chang could not immediately be reached for comment.

KFIR Capital's Jake Blatter (KFIR Capital)
KFIR Capital’s Jake Blatter (KFIR Capital)

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Bayrock plans to continue operating the property as a hotel, according to Blatter. 

The deal comes months after Bayrock acquired another Holiday Inn hotel in Queens, but the plans for that property are bound to be impacted by an adjacent development site.

Bayrock purchased the former Holiday Inn LaGuardia Airport and the parking lot next door in Corona from the Moinian Group for $50 million. While the 217-key, 107,000-square-foot property closed during the pandemic, the adjacent parking lot has plans in place for a 103-unit, 81,000-square-foot residential building.

In the aftermath of the pandemic, Chang has been on a selling spree. 

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The hotelier recently agreed to sell the Hilton near the John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens for below $70 million. Slate Property Group and RiseBoro Community Partnership are planning to convert the hotel to affordable housing, the first to take advantage of a state program created two years ago.

Last year saw $2.05 billion of hotel deals in New York City, a pandemic-era best but still well below pre-pandemic sales volume. Travel is beginning to return to the city, which should prove to be a boost to the battered market. Additionally, the passage of a law in 2021 that requires new hotel builds in the city to have a special permit makes existing hotels even hotter commodities.

Correction: An earlier version of this article reported incorrectly that KFIR Capital’s Jake Blatter represented both sides of the deal. In-house brokers worked with the seller.