By: Benyamin Davidsons
The historic Hotel Chelsea is finally reopening following its eleven-year hiatus, as reported by the NY Post.
Originally opened in 1884, the hotel is located at 222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, in the Chelsea neighborhood. One of the city’s first private apartment cooperatives, in its prime, it was the home of famed artists, filmmakers, and musicians including Madonna, Andy Warhol, Jack Kerouac, Chet Baker, authors Arthur C. Clarke, Mark Twain and Arthur Miller, and poet Allen Ginsberg. The hotel stopped taking reservations for new guests in 2011 to begin renovations. Long-time residents, however, were permitted to stay put, some of them protected by state rent regulations. The hotel has yet to reopen since then, having changed ownership hands multiple times since the closure.
While there were multiple previous rumored attempts to reopen, this time it’s for real. The hotel is now taking bookings for two floors of guest rooms, at discounted rates. The hotel’s Web site says: “As Hotel Chelsea emerges from rehab, we are offering a few rooms at ‘hard hat’ rates to guests willing to tolerate a little construction.” For now, the hotel’s red-brick facade and ornate iron balconies are still hidden behind netting, and the entrance is still obscured with a sidewalk construction bridge. The full reopening is slated for late in the summer –with 155 restored guest rooms, as per the property’s representatives. A lobby attendant, however, told the Post, “We’re shooting for September.”
The 12-story building is now being operated by BD Hotels partners Richard Born, Ira Drukier and Sean Macpherson. The reopening represents a six-year-long quest to reopen as a luxury boutique hotel with condo units. The partners had purchased the building in 2016 for $250 million. Billionaire Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital is also an owner. The landmark hotel faced a plague of lawsuits and construction delays, including a lengthy dispute with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Some 50 residential tenants with rent-stabilized leases also sued alleging harassment and health hazards, which led to a halt in construction, though the investigation did not find any major violations.
The hotel’s eatery named El Quijote, which was closed for four years, also quietly reopened last month.
