Lotte New York Palace Hotel

Coordinates: 40°45′28.92″N 73°58′30.1″W / 40.7580333°N 73.975028°W / 40.7580333; -73.975028

Lotte New York Palace Hotel
The Lotte New York Palace Hotel, with the historic Villard Houses in the foreground
General information
Address 455 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022
U.S.
Owner Lotte Hotels & Resorts
Management Lotte Hotels & Resorts
Design and construction
Architect Villard Houses: McKim, Mead & White
Helmsley Palace: Emery Roth & Sons
New York Palace: Lee Jablin of Harman Jablin Architects
Website
www.lottenypalace.com

Lotte New York Palace Hotel is a luxury hotel in Midtown Manhattan, at the corner of 50th Street and Madison Avenue. The hotel's property includes the historic landmark Villard Houses and an adjacent modern 55-story skyscraper.

History

In 1882, Henry Villard, a railroad financier, hired McKim, Mead & White to create six private brownstone townhouses surrounding a courtyard, on Madison Avenue. The architectural firm designed the houses in the Italian Neo-Renaissance style, after the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome, Italy. The homes were originally known as the Villard Houses, and the building is now also referred to as the Villard Mansion.

In the spring of 1974, the developer Harry Helmsley proposed a 55-story hotel for the site of the Villard Houses, called The Helmsley Palace Hotel. To construct his hotel tower, Helmsley hired Emery Roth & Sons, who created its design of dark bronze reflective glass and anodized aluminum to blend with the Villard Houses and the surrounding skyline of Manhattan. The Helmsley Palace Hotel opened in 1981 and was operated by Helmsley until 1992, after which the hotel came under the control of Amedeo Hotels Limited Partnership, a private limited partnership owned by the family of Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei, changing its name to the New York Palace Hotel.[1]

During Helmsley's ownership, his wife Leona Helmsley maintained a strict and intolerant management style which involved her firing staff members for trivial mistakes, an act which gave her the nickname "Queen of Mean". The hotel reverted to its bond holders from Leona Helmsley, and it was ultimately purchased in 1993 by the Sultan of Brunei with the concurrence of the US Bankruptcy Court.[2] The Sultanate of Brunei, through its development company (the Amedeo group), hired Lee Jablin of Harman Jablin Architects for the complete renovation of the hotel and Villard Houses.

Northwood Investors, an American real estate investment firm, bought the hotel from the Sultan of Brunei in 2011.[3]

In May 2015, Lotte Hotels & Resorts, a South Korea-based owner and operator of luxury hotels, agreed to a deal acquiring the hotel for $805 million from Northwood Investors. Lotte Hotels & Resorts completed the acquisition on August 28, 2015.[4] The hotel was then renamed as Lotte New York Palace Hotel.

Description

Courtyard in 2008

Courtyard and lobby

What was once the carriage entrance of the Villard Houses on Madison Avenue is now known as the Courtyard. During the restoration of the hotel, the Courtyard was redesigned to incorporate motifs from the flooring of several 15th-century Italian cathedrals, a nod to its original styling after Rome’s Palazzo della Cancellaria. A two-story lobby joins the Villard Houses building with the newer tower building of the hotel.

Guest rooms

The hotel has a total of around 822 guest rooms and 87 suites, as of March 2016. Rates range from $445 to $25,000 per night.

The Towers

The Towers at Lotte New York Palace are a subset of 176 accommodations among the rooms in the tower building. The Towers rooms and suites are located on floors 41 and above.[5]

In 2015, The Towers earned a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence. The Towers was ranked #10 on TripAdvisor's Top 25 Luxury Hotels in the United States.[6]

From September 18-21, 2017, President Donald Trump greeted world leaders for summit meetings during the annual United Nations General Assembly. On May 23, 2018, President Trump attended a roundtable and dinner with supporters at Lotte New York Palace Hotel.[7]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Helmsley Palace Succession: Brunei Royalty Buying Hotel
  2. ↑ From the Vault: New York Palace Hotel, 455 Madison Avenue Commercial Observer, Jan. 13, 2014.
  3. ↑ Brandt, Nadja (2011-05-18). "New York Palace Hotel to Be Sold to Kukral's Northwood". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  4. ↑ Brandt, Nadja (2015-05-30). "South Korea's Lotte Group buys New York hotel for $805 million". reuters.com. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  5. ↑ "The Towers at Lotte New York Palace". lottenypalace.com. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  6. ↑ "Top 25 Luxury Hotels — United States". Tripadvisor.com. Retrieved 2015-01-30.
  7. ↑ "President Trump Discusses Immigration, MS-13 Gang On Long Island". CBS New York. Retrieved 23 May 2018.

Bibliography

  • "The New York Palace Hotel: the History Behind a New York" (press release)
  • Gray, Christopher (2003-12-21). "Madison Avenue Between 50th and 51st Street; A Landmark 6-Home Complex in Dark Brownstone". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  • Lessard, Suzzannah. "Stanford White Runs Away and Joins the Circus" The New York Times (May 1, 1997)
  • Staff. "Playing The Palace: The Good Old Days" The New York Times (June 9, 1996)
  • von Pressentin Wright, Carol. Blue Guide New York. Somerset Books, 2008.
  • White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot (2000), AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.), New York: Three Rivers Press, ISBN 978-0-8129-3107-5
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.