Thursday, December 06, 2007

Can Ian Buy a W?

Yesterday, a little story made the rounds that Ian Schrager had purchased a building on Canal Street with plans to construct a W Hotel. Now, that's just umpossible, with the reason being Schrager has recently entered into a very long term deal with Marriott to jointly develop properties. Guess who owns W? Not Marriott! Scratch that idea. However, we do believe that this hotel could be a Schrager and Co. target. Why? Well, his old partner Morgans Hotel Group is bringing Ian's baby the Mondrian just to the West. Wouldn't it make Ian happy to grab a slice of the Chinatown pie and stick it to his old foes? DBTH says yes. But Morgan's definitely wins the locational battle, unless Ian's potential customers book rooms based on a need to catch the Chinatown bus. We're sticking with this one.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is this blog obsessed with Ian Schrager? Isn't there something more interesting in the world than the guy who started Studio 54?

Anonymous said...

Because Ian makes lovely things happen... hence the Grammercy Hotel.

And I also think that this rumor could have a shred of truth to it... for years, Ian tried to buy that old Andy Warhol hangout space (the original "Factory") in the LES, but the owners kind of screwed him and his other partners at the last minute. He LOVES that area of town.

Plus it's well-known that there's a W going in on/near Eldridge near Canal Street.