Schrager Passes on Buying Manhattan's Hotel Chelsea

Ian Schrager, the developer credited with inventing the boutique-hotel concept, considered buying Manhattan's landmark Hotel Chelsea and decided against an offer after viewing the 127-year-old property last month. "If Ian Schrager got it, it would be a home run," Faith Hope Consolo, Chairman of Retail Leasing, Marketing and Sales for Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, said of the Chelsea a week after the property was put up for sale. "He knows how to do these types of projects. He'll put on that Midas touch."