NEW YORK— Ian Schrager is selling the Empire hotel in New York, according to a report in The New York Post. The hotel, formerly a Radisson, sits across from New York’s Lincoln Center, and will likely attract strong list of buyers, said the report. Schrager has reportedly stalled on the downtown hotel he was trying to build with The Related Companies on the parking lost of the Cooper Union art school, which is reportedly now reassessing what it will do with the site. Schrager purchased the Empire and the Barbizon hotels in 1999 for $177 million. He sold the Barbizon last year for $96 million: the hotel was consequently renamed the Melrose, a new boutique brand developed by Berwind, growing out of the original Melrose Hotel in Dallas. According to The Post, Schrager was expected to do a complete overhaul on the Empire.
