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Jigga What? Jay-Z Hotel No More

Jay-Z has 99 problems and a hotel is one. Last year around this time, hotel geeks around the world were throwing their hands up and saying, "Big Pimpin' up in NYC" when it was announced that rapper Jay-Z (real name: Shawn Carter) would be opening his own Jay-Z-branded J Hotel on New York's West Side. (Ok, maybe it was just us.)

Yet Curbed reports that as the economy continues its epic fail ride, the J-Hotel is no longer. According to the NY Times the developer Charles Blaichman, he of Soho House, cannot secure financing for the hotel and is now currently trying to rent the former Time Warner Cable warehouse.

Mr. Blaichman, who has built two dozen projects in the past 20 years, is struggling to borrow money: $370 million for the three hotels, which include a venture with Jay-Z, the hip-hop mogul. A year ago, it would have seemed a reasonable amount for Mr. Blaichman. Not now.

“Even the banks who want to give us money can’t,” he said.

J Hotels is not dead in the water, we don't think. Maybe when times are good again, we will see a J Hotel rising from some city, somewhere, someday. Until then, "change clothes and go." (Sorry, couldn't resist.)