Joseph Chetrit is the buyer of the legendary Hotel Chelsea at 222 West 23rd Street, according to an article by Craig Karmin in today's edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Chetrit, an active property investor who shuns publicity and who previously upgraded the Empire Hotel on Broadway across from the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, has signed a contract to purchase the hotel for more than $80 million, according to people familiar with the matter, the article said.

Mr. Chetrit, whose properties include a stake in the country's tallest building, the former Sears Tower known now as the Willis Tower in Chicago, didn't respond to requests for comment, the article said.

Mr. Chetrit intends to keep the 12-story, 127-year-old building in Chelsea as a hotel, upgrading and modernizing it, according to people familiar with the matter, the article said, adding that "that will likely come as some relief to the hotel's regular tenants who had been worried a new owner might convert it into condominiums."

The article said that "if the sale to Mr. Chetrit closes, it will mark the end of control by an ownership group led by three Hungarian families who bought the red-brick building in 1946. In recent years, disagreements grew among the owners about such things as rent-collection policies and investing in the property, which is showing its age. They put it up for sale last fall after concluding a renovation would be too difficult and costly. It's unclear whether Mr. Chetrit will continue the hotel's tradition of liberal rent-collection policies toward some struggling artists, though many in the hotel industry have expressed doubt that any new owner would continue such a policy."

"Originally opened as one of the city's first cooperatives, then converted into a hotel in 1905, Hotel Chelsea has been home to a creative class, from Dylan Thomas to Thomas Wolfe. Arthur C. Clarke wrote '2001: A Space Odyssey' there, and Leonard Cohen wrote the song 'Chelsea Hotel No. 2' in its honor. It also was the setting for Andy Warhol's 1966 film 'Chelsea Girls,' and the site where Nancy Spungen, the girlfriend of punk-rocker Sid Vicious, was stabbed to death," the article continued.

"The hotel's new owner also will face hurdles in his plan to upgrade the property to attract more affluent travelers. The Hotel Chelsea has 125 guest rooms and about 100 rental apartments, some of which are under rent regulations. Many of those renters have been vocal about wanting to stay, and removing them could become expensive or be challenged in court. Hotel experts also say the property's aging lobby, retail space and corridors need considerable investment," the article said.

Mr. Chetrit, a Moroccan-born immigrant, owns directly or through partnerships dozens of buildings in New York and a handful of other states....Mr. Chetrit recently began interior demolition on the former Caledonian Hospital complex overlooking Propsect Park in Brooklyn, which he is planning to convert into a 270-unit condominium.