Sikh about town Vikram Chatwal, who owns the Dream Hotel, might have some restlessly sober guests to deal with if he doesn’t find a new home for the Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene. The 200-member congregation meets in a landmarked 1904 Stanford White building at 130 West 44th Street that he’s turning into a 101-room hotel designed by Thierry Despont, slated to open by March 2007. According to pastor John Bowen, “There will be no alcohol allowed in the hotel. They agreed to that.” Bowen says the church will stay in the building, which it owns. The hotel would have a 99-year lease, after which the property reverts to the church. Chatwal’s not giving up the booze profits that easily, though. “I am making sure the church is relocated,” he says. “We’re not going to move them out until we find them a place. But if it comes to the point where the church is still there and we have to do it with no alcohol, we’ll just have to do it. The church is going to be a partner in the hotel.”

Next: Johnny Depp, Suburbanite?

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Deborah Schoeneman
• Table of Contents: November 14, 2005 issue of New York | Subscribe!