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8th Ave. Retail Strip To Be Demolished For New Hotel, Plans Show

By Maya Rajamani | January 16, 2017 2:07pm | Updated on January 17, 2017 5:12pm
 The site of Sam Chang's proposed hotel, at 523-529 Eighth Ave., near West 36th Street.
The site of Sam Chang's proposed hotel, at 523-529 Eighth Ave., near West 36th Street.
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DNAinfo/Maya Rajamani

GARMENT DISTRICT — A developer plans to demolish four vacant storefronts on Eighth Avenue to make way for a hotel. 

Sam Chang, who runs the Long Island-based McSam Hotel Group, filed for permits to raze the one-story buildings at 523-529 Eighth Ave., near West 36th Street, city Department of Buildings records show.

The four buildings previously housed a Dunkin’ Donuts, a Subway, a White Castle and A-Jay’s USA shoe store.

Chang paid $27.1 million for a 99-year ground lease at the site last spring and filed permits for a 24-story building with hotel and retail space in October, The Real Deal reported.

The approximately 73,434-square-foot hotel will be designed by Gene Kaufman Architects, a filing with the Department of Buildings shows.

Attorney Patrick Jones, who represents Chang, said plans for the hotel are “quite preliminary.”

“We do not yet know the size, the number of rooms or the brand,” he wrote in an email Monday.

The developer doesn’t plan to purchase 521 Eighth Ave., which is currently home to a T-Mobile store, Jones noted.