Sam Chang Sells Long Island City Hotel to Letap Group for $56M

Sam Chang has offloaded another one of his hotels in Long Island City, Queens, to hotel operator Letap Group, part of Chang’s long retirement process, according to city records made public Wednesday.

Chang’s McSam Hotel Group sold the 87,763-square-foot property at 38-21 Ninth Street through the entity LGR Ninth Street to Priyank Patel of Letap for $55.6 million, records show.

Patel signed the deal for Letap, which completed the transaction through the entity Ninth Street Hospitality Propco, while Chang was the signatory for the seller. The purchase was financed through a $36.1 million loan from the State Bank of Texas, according to PincusCo, which first reported the sale.

Spokespeople for McSam and Letap did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was unclear who brokered the sale.

Chang bought the Long Island City site in June 2018 for $6.5 million with plans to build a 16-story, 248-key hotel, but the plans stalled during construction, PincusCo and Crain’s New York Business reported. The market value for the property in 2022 was $17.3 million.

The spot is now in the hands of Patel, who owns several hotels in New York City along with Jasmin Patel, including a NoMad hotel at 16 East 30th Street, the Best Western Premier Herald Square at 50 West 36th Street, and two hotel sites in Long Island City at 38-60 13th Street and 38-11 Tenth Street. 

And it’s the second deal the Patels did with Chang in the neighborhood after a limited liability company tied to Jasmin Patel dropped $40 million in March to buy a 142-key hotel Chang developed at 38-01 11th Street, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

Over the past two years, Chang has offloaded nine properties in eight separate transactions for a total of $758.8 million, PincusCo reported. That included three Midtown hotels, which the developer sold for more than $200 million in December 2023, according to The Real Deal.

The budget hotel king has been shrinking his portfolio ever since he announced to the Wall Street Journal in 2019 that he would retire.

But it’s been a slow retirement, as Chang has been active in hotel developments and even started a new one in February 2023, when he landed $35 million in financing to build a hotel at 223 West 46th Street in Times Square.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.