Results tagged “theplaza”

Arthur Emil, the man behind the late Windows on the World and The Rainbow Room, has won the coveted contract to operate the famous Oak Room and Oak Bar (pictured) in the Plaza Hotel, which is near the end of a three-year, $400 million makeover. The 18 story landmark building opened in 1907 and operated as a hotel until 2005, after being sold for $675 million. After delays blamed on “red tape”, the Plaza is expected to open by the end of March as an upscale condominium with retail space and a smaller hotel.

Manhattan real estate sales set a record in the fourth quarter of 2007, with residential sales averaging out to be $1.4 million (according to data from Prudential Douglas Elliman), an increase of 17.6% over 2006's fourth quarter. However impressive that statistic is, the growth was primarily driven by super high-end sales of at least $10 million.

As noted earlier today, a number of consumer activists, sweatshop protesters and anti-capitalist agitators have for years been working to turn Black Friday into Buy Nothing Day. Spearheaded by the anti-advertising gadflies at Adbusters, the event calls on individuals to suspend purchases for 24 hours and engage in creative activism to highlight the unsustainable patterns of mass consumer culture. Naturally, New York’s anti-corporate performance icon Reverend Billy is all over this. We spoke with...

The Plaza, you know that place where the kids in Gossip Girl hang out, is turning 100 years old today. The date is marked by the first guest to ever check in to the famed establishment. Who was it? The fancy-named Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, and of course a PR-driven hotel manager was behind that. The NY Times reports that "His arrival was orchestrated by the Plaza’s first manager, who wanted the new hotel to open with a splashy, attention-getting stunt."

Anthony Marshall and his wife Charlene buried his mother, Brooke Astor, with an Episcopal priest as the only other person in attendance. A day after a very public funeral service in Manhattan, that had an audio webcast online and several news outlets liveblogging the event, Marshall buried Astor at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetary yesterday. Other family members were not told of the burial arrangements.

Recently Rolling Stone took a 60-second tour of The Beatles' New York, with a little help from Google’s Street Maps feature.

Well, perhaps it's not a wise idea if you have a studio. Today is the last afternoon you can view various objects on sale from the Plaza Hotel at Christie's (the viewing is open until 5PM), but you can look at the catalog online and get ready for tomorrow's auction. Gothamist imagines some restaurant or hotel - or maybe a props department - will go for the furnishings, as well as some people who may have gotten married or engaged or met at the Plaza, because most of the stuff is really rococo - gilded, clunky and big. Maybe the buyers will have a 30,000 mansions they need to furnish. There are bellman uniforms available ($200-300), as are some red shoes from Eloise and even towels, while a Louis XVI style table is the most expensive (starting bid at $12,000). Want a Savonnerie style carpet? You got it. But what's certain is that none of this stuff will appear at Fishs Eddy.

Donald Trump, who had previously owned The Plaza, was surprised that it was losing money. "No kidding. That's one I did well with. It's a wonderful building." Gothamist is surprised that Donald Trump is going about feigning surprise at money losing ventures when his hotels are going belly up. Trump sold the hotel to the prince and the hotel group for $325 million.