The White House hostel (or Whitehouse, if you prefer) at 340 Bowery in Noho, where rooms can be had starting at $27.94 per night according to its website, may soon meet the fate of so many other Bowery flophouses: total annihilation. Purchased by an affiliate of Sam Chang's McSam Hotel Group, the developer had initially tried to keep the address out of the Noho Historic District extension that was recently passed. At the last minute, that bid was dropped, and now the Villager has the details on why.
The building is apparently in terrible shape—"some of the worst conditions in the district" according to a city councilman—and the developers will instead file a hardship application with the Landmarks Preservation Commission to take the building down and replace it with a nine-story hotel. Local groups will not protest the hardship application as long as the 22 remaining full-time tenants in the building are successfully relocated. Because of the Historic District, any new building will have to be approved by the LPC. Locals are hoping the process will end in a decent design for the neighborhood, momentarily forgetting that we're talking about Sam Chang here, folks—the guy who paid money to a professional architect to design this and this and so many more. Though, the odd couple of the LPC and Sam Chang might make for some riveting viewing.
· Noho flophouse flap takes a twist with hotel plan [Villager]
· CurbedWire: 100N3rd Sells Out, McSam Wants Noho Pass [Curbed]
