Pussycat Lounge Preserved! Sam Chang Sells Building To Club Owner for $2.5 M.

After a lengthy legal fight, ravenous hotel developer Sam Chang has apparently given up his plan to tear down the old Pussycat Lounge at 96 Greenwich Street.

Mr. Chang has agreed to sell the ancient, circa-1799 building to Pussycat owner Robert Kremer for $2.5 million, according to city records -- that's $1 million less than Mr. Chang paid for it in 2005.

Mr. Kremer had disputed that prior sale in court, arguing that the deal violated his lease by not honoring his right of first refusal. Moreover, Mr. Kremer claimed that he actually co-owned the building alongside his longtime business partner, Walter Coletti, who died the summer before George Coletti, his brother and executor of the estate, sold it.

Mr. Chang's lawyers had argued that there was no documentary proof of Mr. Kremer’s prior ownership in the property and dismissed his various claims as "all sorts of far-fetched theories."

And yet, those same theories apparently worked well enough for Mr. Kremer. The case was settled last week, with the strip-club owner agreeing to drop his complaints in exchange for buying the building.