The Plaza: Selling A Way of Life
I am including the Eastern edge of Central Park South in our little coverage area because I think Central Park South all the way over to the Plaza Hotel offers the same lifestyle possibilities that now exists at the buildings surrounding Columbus Circle. One can't have a lengthy discussion about how well 15 Central Park West is selling without bringing up the Plaza Hotel Condo Conversion and what that is doing for the entire area. For example, I suspect that our soon to be new neighbors in the Plaza will shop at the same Whole Foods - Time Warner. Welcome to the neighborhood!
[IHT] 5/31/06 The moment Barbara Girard read that The Plaza hotel was converting a large number of its rooms into luxury condominium apartments she was determined to move in, undeterred by asking prices ranging from $6 million to $36 million.
"There was really no choice - it is No. 1," she said, from the New York Palace Hotel, where she is living until her Plaza apartment is ready. "There is no place in the world like The Plaza."
A native New Yorker, Girard remembers teas with her mother at The Plaza's Palm Court. Years later, she took her own daughter there. She was married at the hotel in 1963, and she and her former husband were frequent diners at its famous restaurants, Trader Vic's and the Oak Room.
In the past three years hundreds of hotel rooms in New York have been converted into condominium apartments, including space at some of the city's most historic and elegant hotels. The list includes The Plaza, the St. Regis, The Stanhope and the St. Moritz. About 1,200 rooms were converted in 2004 and in 2005, up from about 200 in 2001 and in 2002.
The conversions have been spurred, in part, by intense market demand for luxury real estate, as well as for homes that come with a broad range of hotel-like services, such as housekeeping, room service and someone to park the car. The demand for such hybrid residences has far surpassed the expectations of market analysts and even those of the most optimistic developers.
"We are not just selling real estate. We are selling a way of life, and the response has been overwhelming," said Ian Schrager, the hotelier and developer who converted part of the Gramercy Park Hotel to condominiums last year. "It's the ultimate luxury: an effortless, carefree way of living in a modern, complex, hectic city."
Hotels with cachet are especially easy to sell, said Bjorn Hanson, a hospitality consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Purchasers are showing they put value in being associated with these brand-named hotels," he said. "Saying, 'My apartment is at the X, Y or Z,' matters to them."
For ordinary travelers, the boom in conversions has meant fewer rooms and higher prices at New York's classic and better-located hotels. Some much-loved hotels with lots of character and moderate price tags, like the Empire, near Lincoln Center, and the Wyndham, just off Central Park, are closed for condominium conversion and will reopen as apartments next year.
The Plaza will not say how many units have been sold (without a single completed unit yet to show), but the oak-paneled sales office is brimming with clients, all of whom were screened before they were allowed to make appointments.
adding modern touches, such as a wireless console in each apartment unit will be a command center for myriad mundane tasks like controlling heat and ordering theater tickers; it also will display the hotel entrance on a video camera so residents can see whether guests or a car have arrived.
"We see ourselves as a bridge between what The Plaza used to be and the 21st century," said Miki Naftali, the president of Elad, who set out to buy The Plaza a couple of years ago and would not take 'no' for an answer.
[IHT] 5/31/06 The moment Barbara Girard read that The Plaza hotel was converting a large number of its rooms into luxury condominium apartments she was determined to move in, undeterred by asking prices ranging from $6 million to $36 million.
"There was really no choice - it is No. 1," she said, from the New York Palace Hotel, where she is living until her Plaza apartment is ready. "There is no place in the world like The Plaza."
A native New Yorker, Girard remembers teas with her mother at The Plaza's Palm Court. Years later, she took her own daughter there. She was married at the hotel in 1963, and she and her former husband were frequent diners at its famous restaurants, Trader Vic's and the Oak Room.
In the past three years hundreds of hotel rooms in New York have been converted into condominium apartments, including space at some of the city's most historic and elegant hotels. The list includes The Plaza, the St. Regis, The Stanhope and the St. Moritz. About 1,200 rooms were converted in 2004 and in 2005, up from about 200 in 2001 and in 2002.
The conversions have been spurred, in part, by intense market demand for luxury real estate, as well as for homes that come with a broad range of hotel-like services, such as housekeeping, room service and someone to park the car. The demand for such hybrid residences has far surpassed the expectations of market analysts and even those of the most optimistic developers.
"We are not just selling real estate. We are selling a way of life, and the response has been overwhelming," said Ian Schrager, the hotelier and developer who converted part of the Gramercy Park Hotel to condominiums last year. "It's the ultimate luxury: an effortless, carefree way of living in a modern, complex, hectic city."
Hotels with cachet are especially easy to sell, said Bjorn Hanson, a hospitality consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Purchasers are showing they put value in being associated with these brand-named hotels," he said. "Saying, 'My apartment is at the X, Y or Z,' matters to them."
For ordinary travelers, the boom in conversions has meant fewer rooms and higher prices at New York's classic and better-located hotels. Some much-loved hotels with lots of character and moderate price tags, like the Empire, near Lincoln Center, and the Wyndham, just off Central Park, are closed for condominium conversion and will reopen as apartments next year.
The Plaza will not say how many units have been sold (without a single completed unit yet to show), but the oak-paneled sales office is brimming with clients, all of whom were screened before they were allowed to make appointments.
adding modern touches, such as a wireless console in each apartment unit will be a command center for myriad mundane tasks like controlling heat and ordering theater tickers; it also will display the hotel entrance on a video camera so residents can see whether guests or a car have arrived.
"We see ourselves as a bridge between what The Plaza used to be and the 21st century," said Miki Naftali, the president of Elad, who set out to buy The Plaza a couple of years ago and would not take 'no' for an answer.
posted by rjgny2004 at 1:56 PM
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