The Whitehouse Hotel, the hostel/flophouse combo on the Bowery, has been on Deathwatch for years now. Dating back to 2008, developer Sam Chang had been trying to convert the property at 338-340 Bowery into a 9- (or 10-) floor hotel.
As The Commercial Observer reported this past Friday afternoon, Chang is now selling the property (officially called Bowery's Whitehouse Hotel and Hostel of New York) between Great Jones and Bond to an unknown buyer for $12 million.
We looked at DOB records and found that plans were filed on April 23 for a 9-floor hotel with a proposed 68 rooms. (Total cost of the project is listed at $5 million.) Michael Lisowski of Otte Architecture is the architect of record. It's not clear if the Whitehouse would be demolished for the new hotel, or if new floors would be dropped on top of the existing structure. (We're leaning toward the full demo, of course.) Sixteen Hotel LLC, the company affiliated with Chang, is still listed as the property owners on the latest permits.
According to the DOB, the city disapproved plans here for a 10-floor hotel in July 2011 with Gene Kaufman as the architect of record.
Despite a renovation to make itself more appealing to backpackers and other thrill seekers in 2011, the Whitehouse had retained some of the Bowery edge of yore. For $45, guests can stay in a tiny room where the walls don't go up to the ceiling.
Meanwhile, it might not to be too much longer before that sidewalk bridge returns here.
Previously on EV Grieve:
More tenant meetings for White House residents; plus the bed bugs will be exterminated
I didn't realize there were still any flop houses left on the Bowery. given the choice between flop house and boutique hotel I choose neither.
ReplyDeleteugh, don't wanna see those awesome windows and a cheap place to stay bite the dust.
ReplyDelete...where are the city's 1 in 5 poor people going to end up? Here's hoping that if it has to "convert" to something it becomes affordable housing.
ReplyDelete@Anon 9:44
ReplyDeleteYes, because I'm sure if you were the developer, you would choose to spend your money developing affordable housing? Get off your soapbox.
de Blazio want to let developers build higher, but he also want to keep poor people from losing their homes -- how's that gonna work exactly???
ReplyDeleteNever mind those down on their luck who need a cheap place to sleep, we need to bring in more people with money, because you know...it just looks better. And after all those people are just lazy and want hand outs...the nerve.
ReplyDeleteHey Anon @ 12:56,
ReplyDeleteAre you personally helping people "down on their luck" in any way? If not, then why do you expect others to?
Or better yet, what if you were given the choice of earning a salary of $1 million dollars at your current job or keeping your current pay so that someone "down on their luck" could earn $1M a year? I really doubt you'd choose the latter, so stop expecting others to make that choice.
anon at 10:48 and 3:05 is that you Ben Shaoul?
ReplyDeleteReally, go troll you bull someplace else. Collect your fat paycheck and opine on the Faux sites.
ReplyDeleteWhat's YOUR suggestion for the poor, trolling 10:48? "Camps?" GFU.
ReplyDeleteActually, pretty sure that 10:48 and 3:05 is just another wannabe play money millionaire in training.
ReplyDeleteIf this were an actual millionaire troll, our computers would burst into flames.
Back in the day, '60s and '70s, the "Whitehouse" had no official name. It was just a flophouse like The Kenton, The Palace, The Uncle Sam, The Sunshine and a few others. The Whitehouse was called the whitehouse because it didn't allow black people to stay there and it didn't get a sign out front until it became a boutique hostel. We, Bowery bums, of yore would sometimes stay there when we had the cash—less than $20 a week— but it didn't accept "tickets" from the Men's Shelter as the other flops did. I did a ten-day wine-drunk there once and picked up some body-lice.
ReplyDeleteJust when I feel like I can not stand to encounter another whining complaint about the latest expensive restaurant or the latest noisy NYU brats, I read a comment like Mr. Kopperdahl's, above, and am able to learn something I could never have known otherwise, as well as be amused by the very personal insights. And thus I can stagger forth, to meet another day.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Hotel Chicken Wire...I worked at Time Inc in the 2002 but moved here with very little, and never made enough money to get an apartment. I flopped between cheap Bushwick sublets, the Greenpoint YMCA, and the Whitehouse. No one I worked with knew or care that I lived there. I recognized people that would panhandle in the train that lived with me @ WH.
ReplyDeleteI've been amazed that the WH was still there, but I happily rent in BK now. I think Downtown Music Gallery was still there, and it was before the Bowery Hotel.
A remarkable place that helped me out when I needed it.