New owners plan to restore 20's-era Prince George Hotel

Real Estate Weekly, May 12, 1993

The original excitement of the roaring 20's will return to New York City as the new owners of the Prince George Hotel, located on East 28th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues, plan a major restoration.

The hotel, which had plummeted in recent years into one of New York's most infamous and derelict welfare hotels, has been sold to foreign investors. In the complex transaction by Tollman Hundley Hotels sold the hotel to Caspi Development of Armonk, New York, who in turn sold the property to Sam Chang of Oriental Hotels of Taiwan. Helmsley-Spear Vice President Mara Spiegel, as exclusive broker, represented Tollman Hundley in the transaction. Terms of the sates were not disclosed.

The hotel took two took two years to sell due to the need of major renovations and the inability of developers to get rehabilitation financing from New York banks. The hotel's mortgage, though not its title, was held by the Resolution Trust Corporation, and New York City hotel occupancy rates had bottomed out.