McSam Hotel Group to build new boutique on W56th.

McSam Hotel Group, one of the City's most active buyers of development sites, with a penchant for Midtown South sites, is traveling northwards.

The Company has just acquired a 2,500 s/f parcel for $7.5 million, located at 20 West 56th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, formerly occupied by a four-story Japanese restaurant. Proposed is a 20,000 s/f 14-story full-service boutique hotel.

Eastern Consolidated's executive directors Eric M. Anton and Ronald A. Solarz represented the seller, True World Group, Inc., a Japan-based investor, while senior director Alan P. Miller procured the buyer, McSam Hotel Group, led by Sam Chang. "Just one block South of New York's Champs Elysee, 57th Street, and a stone's throw from Carnegie Hall and the theatre district, this site couldn't enjoy a better location for a hospitality property," said Miller.

"In fact, a number of sites on the street are in transition, including 19-21 West 56th Street, the former American Cancer Society Building, now under contract, and 31-39 West 56th Street, currently being developed by Manhattan Century Properties & The Stillman Organization into a luxury mixed-use residential condominium."

According to Solarz, "True World's Japanese restaurant Kiiroi Hana, which opened in 1983 has been a Manhattan fixture for years, but its owners realized that the time was right to cash in on its longterm investment."

The law offices of John P. O'Donnell, P.C. represented the seller, while Brian G. Wrynn, Esq. acted in-house on behalf of McSam.

The True World Group LLC invests in ocean-related businesses and other businesses that can work together to fulfill the vision of solving the problem of starvation in the world and promoting the understanding that humankind is inseparably related to the ocean by investing in such causes.