New York’s iconic Plaza Hotel will close by April 30 to be divided into three parts — condominiums, stores and a much smaller hotel.
Elad Properties, the subsidiary of El-Ad Group Ltd. (Fort Lee, N.J.) that bought the 805-room hotel for $675 million last year, confirmed rumor that it would be closed, renovated and turned into a multipurpose building. President and ceo Miki Naftali said he was planning 200 one-to-four-bedroom condos, mainly on the Plaza’s upper floors, facing Fifth Avenue and Central Park South. He said that a hotel with 150 rooms, just under a fifth the number the Plaza has now, would occupy much of the 58th Street side of the building.
The ornate Grand Ballroom and the multilevel Terrace Room on the lobby level would be turned into space for stores. Two sub-basement levels will also be renovated for retailers, he said.
On the other hand, two of the Plaza’s most visible and venerable public spaces will reopen after being given nothing more than what he called cosmetic touchups: the Palm Court, the airy centerpiece of the lobby; the restaurant at the building’s northeast corner that was long known as the Edwardian Room (and closed after being renamed One CPS); and the Oak Room and the Oak Bar, with their dark-paneled walls. But the restaurants will be operated separately from the hotel and are likely to be turned over to outside restaurateurs.
The Plaza’s exterior will remain untouched. It was designated a city landmark in 1969, though the interior has never been given landmark status. “It’s not that we feel we’re restricted” because of the landmark status, Naftali said. “We can’t think of changing it. I don’t need to put huge signage on the building to call people to come in.”
He said that the Plaza, which opened in 1907, was “worn down” and needed to be brought up to modern standards. “It’s amazing people think it’s one of the best hotels in the world,” he said. “It’s not. But look at the space.”
The current plan calls for the Plaza’s registration area, on the Central Park South side of the first floor, to serve as the entrance to the condos. The new hotel will be reached from the Rose Room, a high-ceilinged space that once housed a nightclub off the hotel’s Fifth Avenue lobby.