January 23, 2005
Say it ain't so! The Plaza to go 'condo/retail center'
The new owner of legendary New York landmark The Plaza has very sad plans, the Post reports. Once home to Vanderbilts and Hitchcocks, the 98-year-old hotel will shut its doors for 18 to 24 months on April 30, after which the building will be remodeled into condominiums and retail space. Only about 80 of The Plaza's 805 rooms will remain as a hotel. Basing its story on an anonymous source close to the hotel's operators, the Post says new tenants could include tenants such as Versace, Zabar's or a spa, and most of the high-end rooms facing Central Park would be sold to permanent tenants.
Last year, Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva spent $675 million to buy the Plaza, which has lost money since the World Trade Center attacks. Open since 1907 and first used primarily as a residence for wealthy New Yorkers, the French Renaissance building at the southeast corner of Central Park is one of the city's most treasured spaces. As those rooms go private, a one-bedroom could fetch as much as $3 million each. The Post also quotes William Costigan, a high-end broker who just sold a $12 million apartment on Central Park. "The Europeans are able to buy here for less. You are buying a piece of New York history."
Earlier: Nostalgia does not a meal make at Oak Room
Dorothy Parker Society bidding farewell to Oak Room
January 23, 2005 08:24 AM in History, Hotelology, Midtown
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