The Royalton Hotel is a hotel at 44 West 44th Street in

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, United States. The hotel, opened in 1898, was designed by architecture firm

Rossiter & Wright Ehrick Kensett Rossiter (September 14, 1854 – October 14, 1941) was an American architect known for the country homes he designed.Philippe Starck Philippe Starck (; born 18 January 1949) is a French industrial architect and designer known for his wide range of designs, including interior design, architecture, household objects, furniture, boats and other vehicles. His most popular pieces ...

and Gruzen Samton Steinglass Architects converted the Royalton to a

boutique hotel Boutique hotels are small-capacity Hotel, hotels that provide more personalized service than typical hotels. They typically have fewer than a hundred rooms, and are considered more "trendy" and "intimate", often due to their location in urban ar ...

in the 1980s. The hotel was originally a residential

apartment hotel An apartment hotel or aparthotel (also residential hotel or extended-stay hotel) is a serviced apartment complex that uses a hotel-style booking system. It is similar to renting an apartment, but with no fixed contracts and occupants can "check ...

and was developed between 1897 and 1898. For most of the 20th century, the Royalton operated as an apartment hotel; due to its proximity to

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

, the hotel housed many figures in the entertainment industry. A group including Philip Pilevsky,

Arthur G. Cohen Arthur George Cohen (April 23, 1930 – August 9, 2014) was an American businessman and real estate developer in New York City. Early life and education Cohen was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Frances (née Kostic ...

Ian Schrager Ian Schrager (born July 19, 1946) is an American entrepreneur, hotel manager, hotelier and real estate developer, credited for co-creating the "boutique hotel" category of accommodation. Originally, he gained fame as co-owner and co-founder of S ...

, and

Steve Rubell Steve Rubell (December 2, 1943 – July 25, 1989) was an American entrepreneur and co-owner of the New York City disco Studio 54. Early life Rubell and his brother Donald grew up in a Jewish family in the Crown Heights and Canarsie sections ...

bought the Royalton in 1985 and renovated it into a boutique hotel. The Royalton reopened in October 1988 and quickly became popular, with critics largely praising the new design. The

Morgans Hotel Group Morgans Hotel Group (NASDAQ: $MHG) was a global, publicly-traded hospitality company founded by Ian Schrager and specialized in the boutique hotel category. Its foundations were laid in 1984 with the opening of the namesake Morgans Hotel in New ...

(MHG) operated the Royalton for over two decades and renovated it again in 2007. FelCor Lodging Trust bought the hotel from MHG in 2011 and resold it to Highgate Holding and the Rockpoint Group in 2017.

MCR Hotels MCR Hotels is an American hotel owner-operator. It is the third largest hotel owner in the United States by room count, with 25,000 rooms and hotels that include The High Line and TWA hotels. History MCR Hotels was founded by Tyler Morse in ...

bought the hotel in 2020.

Site

The Royalton Hotel is on 44 West 44th Street, on the south sidewalk between

Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue, also known as Avenue of the Americas, is a major thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The avenue is commercial for much of its length, and traffic runs northbound, or uptown. Sixth Avenue begins four blocks b ...

and

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

, in the

neighborhood of

. The rectangular

land lot In real estate, a land lot or plot of land is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner(s). A plot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property (meaning practically the sam ...

extends south to 43rd Street, where the hotel has an alternate address of 47–49 West 43rd Street. It covers , with a

frontage Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...

of on both 43rd and 44th Streets and a depth of . On the same block, the

New York City Bar Association Building New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 19 ...

is to the west, while the Penn Club of New York Building, the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen Building, the Century Association Building, and the Hotel Mansfield are to the east. Other nearby buildings include the

New York Yacht Club Building The New York Yacht Club Building is a seven-story Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts clubhouse at 37 West 44th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, United States. Opened in 1901, the building was designed by architec ...

and the

Harvard Club of New York City The Harvard Club of New York City, commonly called The Harvard Club, is a private social club located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Its membership is limited to alumni, faculty and board members of Harvard University. Incorporated in 18 ...

building to the northeast; the

Algonquin Algonquin or Algonquian—and the variation Algonki(a)n—may refer to: Languages and peoples *Algonquian languages, a large subfamily of Native American languages in a wide swath of eastern North America from Canada to Virginia **Algonquin la ...

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

, and Sofitel New York hotels to the north; the

Belasco Theatre The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theater at 111 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Originally known as the Stuyvesant Theatre, it was bu ...

to the northwest; and

the Chatwal New York The Chatwal New York, originally the Lambs Club Building, is a hotel and a former clubhouse at 130 West 44th Street, near Times Square, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. The building was originally six stor ...

hotel and the Town Hall to the west. The adjacent block of 44th Street is known as Club Row, which contains several

clubhouses Clubhouse may refer to: Locations * The meetinghouse of: ** A club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal ** In the United States, a country club ** In the United Kingdom, a gentlemen's club * A ...

. When the hotel was developed in 1902, the area was filled with clubhouses, including those of the Harvard Club of New York City,

Yale Club The Yale Club of New York City, commonly called The Yale Club, is a gentlemen's club, private club in Midtown Manhattan, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Its membership is restricted almost entirely to alumni and faculty of Yale University. ...

New York Yacht Club The New York Yacht Club (NYYC) is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. ...

New York City Bar Association The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, commonly referred to as the New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization has been headquartere ...

, and

Century Association The Century Association is a private social, arts, and dining club in New York City, founded in 1847. Its clubhouse is located at 7 West 43rd Street near Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. It is primarily a club for men and women with distinctio ...

. Prior to the development of the Royalton Hotel, the neighborhood contained a slaughterhouse, stables for stagecoach horses, and a train yard for the elevated Sixth Avenue Line. There were historically many stagecoach stables on 43rd and 44th Streets between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, but only a few of these stables remained at the end of the 20th century. The Royalton is also one of six hotels on 44th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, the largest concentration of hotels on a single block in New York City during the early 21st century.

Architecture

The Royalton Hotel is 13 stories high.

Rossiter & Wright Ehrick Kensett Rossiter (September 14, 1854 – October 14, 1941) was an American architect known for the country homes he designed. During the mid-1980s,

Philippe Starck Philippe Starck (; born 18 January 1949) is a French industrial architect and designer known for his wide range of designs, including interior design, architecture, household objects, furniture, boats and other vehicles. His most popular pieces ...

and

Gruzen Samton Steinglass Architects Jordan L. Gruzen (April 5, 1934 – January 27, 2015) was an American architect. Education and career Gruzen was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, to B. Sumner Gruzen, an architect. He graduated from the MIT School of Architecture and Plannin ...

renovated the hotel, and Brian McNally designed two ground-level restaurants. The hotel was redecorated with gray-green

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

, dark green marble, carved aluminum, and mahogany. The modern lobby dates to a 2007 renovation by Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of

Roman and Williams Roman and Williams is a design studio in New York City. It was founded in 2002 by Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch. History Ben Stiller hired the couple to design his Los Angeles home after working with them on the set of the film '' Duplex'' ...

. When the hotel operated as an apartment hotel, the ground story was dedicated to public rooms such as restaurants and dining rooms; private meeting rooms; and club rooms such as reception rooms, reading rooms, and parlors. The remainder of the hotel was rented out as

bachelor apartments ''Bachelor Apartments'' is a 1921 American silent comedy film directed by Johnnie Walker Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky produced by Diageo in Scotland. It was established in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire in 1820 ...

. In the 1980s, the interior was rearranged in a manner similar to a mansion, with public rooms on the lower stories and guestrooms on the upper stories.

Lobby

The lobby covers and connects 43rd and 44th Streets. In the 1980s, the lobby was divided into several sections and was decorated with a blue carpet and mirrored walls. A short flight of stairs led down from street level. The lobby itself contained chairs in a variety of designs; glass-topped tables, some of which had chess boards; and decorations such as horse-shaped lamps. Some of the glass vases and tables were part of Starck's Etrangetes (Oddities) collection. The Royalton Grill and a stand-up bar were placed in the lobby, and there was also a 110-seat restaurant known as 44. Next to the lobby was a library with a 20-foot-long table, as well as a game room. Auxiliary spaces, such as restrooms and a check-in desk, were placed away from the main lobby; the men's restroom had an electrically activated waterfall. A circular bar, with blue velvet walls, was also next to the lobby; it was an allusion to the

Algonquin Round Table The Algonquin Round Table was a group of New York City writers, critics, actors, and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke, members of "The Vicious Circle", as they dubbed themselves, met for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel ...

at the neighboring Algonquin. The lobby's architectural features were removed in 2007. The modern lobby is decorated with dark metal and leather, as well as a gas fireplace.

Guestrooms

As originally designed, tenants had

apartment An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement (Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that ...

s overlooking 43rd or 44th Street, while servants lived in rooms overlooking the

light court In architecture, a lightwell,light well, light-well sky-well,skywell, sky well or air shaft is an unroofed or roofed external space provided within the volume of a large building to allow light and air to reach what would otherwise be a dark or u ...

s along the sides of the building. Originally, the hotel had 90 units. The average apartment contained three rooms, which were unfurnished. Each apartment was serviced by a dedicated staff member, and there were 132 bathrooms on the upper stories. Each apartment was served by an ice machine in the basement. The hotel had 250 units by 1919, each of which had two or three rooms. By the 1980s, the hotel had 130 rooms. In the mid-1980s, the corridors leading to the guestrooms were darkened for dramatic effect; as Starck explained, "before the opera starts, the place is dark." The corridors contained dark-blue walls, as well as blue carpets designed by Starck's wife. The fourth floor contained a small fitness center. Following the 1980s renovation, the hotel had 205 rooms, which were arranged in 14 layouts. Generally, the rooms were decorated with "natural materials in neutral colors", including mahogany, gray carpets, and slate. Each of the rooms was decorated with gray-green slate, a material intentionally chosen to evoke

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

. The rooms averaged , and 40 rooms contained working fireplaces. The furniture in each guestroom was designed to resemble animal body parts, such as tails, snake heads, or horns. The mahogany bed frames and nightstands were designed to evoke ships. The furniture included blue armchairs, three-legged chairs, and mahogany-and-steel side tables. The walls had velvet banquettes, and each room had a chandelier with candles and a postcard that was changed twice daily; the postcard was the only art in each room. The bathrooms included features such as

stainless steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...

sinks inset within glass counters, as well as mirrored walls, circular tubs, and glass shower curtains.

History

Apartment hotel

Civil engineer Edward G. Bailey developed the Royalton as an

. Architecture firm Rossiter & Wright filed plans for a 12-story hotel at 44–46 West 44th Street in February 1897, at which point the hotel was expected to cost $500,000. In May 1897, C. F. Dodson & Co. received a general contract for the construction of the Royalton Hotel, between 43rd and 44th Streets. During the hotel's construction, that August, two hundred workers went on strike following a disagreement between ironworkers' and lathers' unions. The project, which cost $750,000, was funded by a $400,000 loan from the

Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York (also known as Mutual of New York or MONY) was the oldest continuous writer of insurance policies in the United States. Incorporated in 1842, it was headquartered at 1740 Broadway, before becoming a ...

. Soon after the hotel was completed in 1898, the Cornell University Club leased several rooms on the hotel's ground level, next to the lobby and billiards room. By 1900, the hotel contained two more clubhouses; the Penn Club occupied the northeastern corner of the Royalton, while the Yachtsman's Club leased five rooms at ground level. The

Columbia University Club of New York The Columbia University Club of New York is a private university alumni club that extends membership to all graduates and their families of all the schools and affiliates of Columbia University, as well as Columbia undergraduate students, gradu ...

also briefly occupied the hotel after its founding in 1900. Although apartments ranged from $50 to $200 a month (equivalent to between $ and $ in ), the Royalton was nearly fully occupied at the beginning of the 20th century. Bailey sold the Royalton to the estate of

Frederick Billings Frederick H. Billings (September 27, 1823 – September 30, 1890) was an American lawyer, financier, and politician. He is known for his legal work on land claims during the early years of California's statehood and his presidency of the Nort ...

in September 1901, and the estate assumed the hotel's $675,000 mortgage. By the late 1900s and early 1910s, the surrounding neighborhood was rapidly developing into an entertainment district. The

New York Hippodrome The Hippodrome Theatre, also called the New York Hippodrome, was a theater located on Sixth Avenue between West 43rd and West 44th Streets in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The theater operated from 1905 to 1939 ...

opened directly adjacent to the Royalton in 1905, and several Broadway theaters had been developed on 44th Street in the 1900s and 1910s. With the development of these attractions, the Royalton began serving theatrical guests as well. The hotel also hosted clubhouses in the early 1910s, such as that of

Phi Gamma Delta Phi Gamma Delta (), commonly known as Phi Gam and sometimes written as FIJI, is a North American social fraternity with 139 active chapters and 13 colonies across the United States and Canada. It was founded at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania ...

. Joseph Shenk was negotiating to acquire the Royalton in November 1919, with the intention of converting the hotel into offices; at the time, the hotel collected $200,000 per year in rent. The planned conversion did not happen, and Quinlan and Leland placed a $550,000 first mortgage loan on the Royalton in 1927. The hotel contained a music store by 1930. During the mid-20th century, the Royalton housed notable figures in the entertainment industry, leading the ''New York Daily News'' to describe the Royalton as the "poor man's Algonquin". Residents included actor

Robert Benchley Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 – November 21, 1945) was an American humorist, newspaper columnist and actor. From his beginnings at ''The Harvard Lampoon'' while attending Harvard University, through his many years writing essays ...

; actresses Lucy Beaumont,

Muriel Starr Muriel Starr (20 February 1888 – 19 April 1950) was a Canadian stage actress. She was particularly popular in Australia in the 1910s and 1920s. She appeared in one film, ''Within the Law (1916 film), Within the Law'' (1916), an adaptation of ...

, and

Catherine Doucet Catherine Doucet (born Catherine Green; June 20, 1875 – June 24, 1958) was an American actress. She appeared in more than 30 films between 1915 and 1954. Her film debut came in ''As Husbands Go''. Doucet's work on Broadway began with ''B ...

; and theatrical critic

George Jean Nathan George Jean Nathan (February 14, 1882 – April 8, 1958) was an American drama critic and magazine editor. He worked closely as an editor with H. L. Mencken bringing the literary magazine ''The Smart Set'' to prominence and while co-founding ...

. The hotel's tenants also included actor

Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cinema actors of the 20th century,''Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia''

and playwrights

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three ...

, and Edward Peple. By the 1980s, the Royalton was a short-term

budget hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

with 130 rooms. The hotel mainly attracted visitors with its low rates and its proximity to the Theater District.

Boutique hotel

1980s and 1990s

Philip Pilevsky was refurbishing the hotel by 1984; he considered 44th Street "one of the most prestigious streets in the city". Pilevsky jointly owned the hotel with

, and

, who bought the hotel in 1985. At the time, several luxury hotels were being developed in Midtown Manhattan, and hundreds of hotel rooms were being built on Manhattan's West Side, which historically had much fewer hotel rooms than the East Side. The group hired Starck because he had little experience designing hotels, and because of his "star status among international designers" at the time. The group was highly involved in the project: for instance, Schrager repainted a sample room 40 times before deciding on a paint color for each room. To hire staff for the hotel, Schrager ran advertisements in entertainment magazines such as ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

''; this attracted 2,000 candidates, who auditioned for 178 jobs. The developers also had to work around a holdout tenant, a retired tap dancer in her 60s who refused to relocate because the hotel was near Broadway. The Royalton reopened on October 10, 1988, after a $40 million renovation. ''The New York Times'' described the hotel's reopening as "one of the most-awaited design events of the year in Manhattan". At the time, nightly room rates averaged $190, while some suites cost more than $1,000 per night.

Jeffrey Chodorow Jeffrey R. Chodorow (born March 2, 1950) is an American restaurateur, lawyer and financier. Early life and education Jeffrey Chodorow was born in the Bronx. His father died the year he was born, and he and his mother moved to Miami, Florida in 1 ...

obtained the liquor license for the hotel's 100-seat restaurant, as Rubell and Schrager had been convicted of felonies and were thus banned from holding liquor licenses.

Geoffrey Zakarian Geoffrey Zakarian (born July 25, 1959) is an American chef, restaurateur, television personality, and author. He is the executive chef of several restaurants in New York City, Atlantic City, and Miami. Gillespie, Nick and Amanda Winkler (2013-11 ...

was hired as the executive chef of the Royalton's restaurant, 44. The hotel's ambience extended to the black uniforms that staff members wore. The hotel recorded between 85 and 100 percent occupancy in its first month. When Rubell died shortly afterward, Schrager continued to operate the hotel alone through the

(MHG). Pilevsky considered selling the hotels that he had co-owned with Rubell and Schrager, including Morgans, the Royalton, and the

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. **Paramount Picture ...

. Although Schrager denied that his hotels were for sale, the Royalton's manager and controller had both resigned by early 1990. Nonetheless, ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...

'' credited the three hotels with popularizing the

industry. The Royalton filed for bankruptcy protection in the early 1990s. The hotel had added a fitness center and 14 rooms by 1992. During that decade, the Royalton hosted guests including

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...

and

Weird Al Yankovic Weird may refer to: Places * Weird Lake, a lake in Minnesota, U.S. People *"Weird Al" Yankovic (born 1959), American musician and parodist Art, entertainment, and media Literature * '' Weird US'', a series of travel guides * ''The Weird'', a 20 ...

, as well as

Karl Lagerfeld Karl Otto Lagerfeld also called Kaiser Karl (; 10 September 1933 – 19 February 2019) was a German fashion designer, photographer, and creative director. Lagerfeld began his career in fashion in the 1950s, working for several top fashion hous ...

k.d. lang Kathryn Dawn Lang (born November 2, 1961), known by her stage name k.d. lang (stylised in all lowercase), is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical pe ...

, and

Wesley Snipes Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962) is an American actor and martial artist. In a film career spanning more than thirty years, Snipes has appeared in a variety of genres, such as numerous thrillers, dramatic feature films, and comedies, th ...

. The hotel's restaurant gained the nickname Club Conde because high-ranking

Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Nast (businessman), Condé Montrose Nast (1873–1942) and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the FiDi, Financial Dis ...

journalists, such as

Graydon Carter Edward Graydon Carter, Order of Canada, CM (born July 14, 1949) is a Canadian journalist who was the editor of ''Vanity Fair (magazine), Vanity Fair'' from 1992 until 2017. He also co-founded, with Kurt Andersen and Thomas L. Phillips, Jr., Tom P ...

and

Tina Brown Christina Hambley Brown, Lady Evans (born in England on 21 November 1953), is a journalist, magazine editor, columnist, broadcaster, and author, with dual British/United States citizenship. She is the former editor in chief of '' Tatler'' (197 ...

, often ate at the hotel's restaurant; in particular, Carter hosted "noncommercial writers' lunches" at the Royalton until the 1990s. The restaurant scene was compared to that of the Algonquin Round Table, leading one writer to say the Algonquin as the "Royalton of the Twenties". The hotel itself gained a reputation for aloof staff, small rooms, and unconventional furniture, which added to its appeal with some guests. By 1994, the Royalton was the second most profitable hotel in the United States, behind the Lowell Hotel, as measured by sales per room.

2000s to present

Schrager was planning to spend $12 million to renovate the hotel by mid-2001, amid a decline in demand for hotels in New York City. In addition, he planned to build of condominiums. After the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

in 2001, Schrager used the Royalton to temporarily house displaced

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

residents, and he had to drastically reduce nightly room rates. Schrager narrowly avoided defaulting on $355 million of debt in 2003; had Schrager gone into default, he would have been forced to surrender the Royalton and three other hotels to his lenders. MHG continued to operate the Royalton after Schrager resigned as the company's chief executive in 2005. At the time, the hotel was appraised at $69 million. The new chief executive W. Edward Scheetz announced in June 2007 that the hotel would close for a full renovation. Roman and Williams spent four months redesigning the lobby, which Scheetz had described as dated. In addition, several rooms on the upper stories were combined into penthouse units, and the bar and restaurant were also renovated. The hotel reopened on October 23, 2007, following a $20.2 million renovation. MHG spent $1.5 million in 2010 to renovate the Brasserie 44 bar, and the company hired several bartenders to overhaul the cocktail menu. The bar reopened in October 2010 and was rebranded Forty-Four. To pay off its increasing debts, Morgans announced in January 2011 that it would sell the Royalton and Morgans hotels. Texas-based hotel chain FelCor Lodging Trust agreed to buy the two hotels that May for a combined $140 million, though MHG continued to operate the hotels. FelCor announced in early 2016 that it was considering selling the Royalton, and Highgate and the Rockpoint Group bought the hotel in August 2017 for $55 million, taking out a $36 million mortgage to fund its purchase. At the time, the hotel had 168 rooms. The Royalton was temporarily closed in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in New York City The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City was confirmed on March 1, 2020, though later research showed that the novel coronavirus had been circulating in New York City since January, with cases of community transmission confirme ...

, and it was sold again in September 2020 to MCR Investors, operator of the

TWA Hotel TWA Hotel is a hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York City, that opened on May 15, 2019. It uses the head house of the TWA Flight Center, designed by the architect Eero Saarinen and completed in 1962, and two flanking ...

, for $41 million. MCR planned to renovate the Royalton to make it less exclusive; the firm's chief executive Tyler Morse said that potential guests avoided the hotel since "it was too intimidating". In December 2023, LuxUrban signed a lease to operate the hotel.

Critical reception

A decade after the hotel opened, the ''

Nashville Tennessean ''The Tennessean'' (known until 1972 as ''The Nashville Tennessean'') is a daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee. Its circulation area covers 39 counties in Middle Tennessee and eight counties in southern Kentucky. It is owned by Gannett, w ...

'' described the Royalton as having "a quite amazing variety of private and dining rooms". Prior to the hotel's 1980s renovations, it was described as looking "so seedy that the shabby gentility of the worn and faded Algonquin, directly across 44th Street, seemed appealing by contrast". When the hotel reopened in 1988, ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' wrote that the Royalton's "elongated lobby resembles a high-tech ocean liner", and that it was "obviously elegant, more obviously a hotel" compared with Morgans. A writer for the ''Hartford Courant'' said that "in form, the place is a modern design museum offering a virtuoso's show", although he also said that the Royalton had some practical shortcomings, such as the fact that the bathrooms were too small to fit two people. ''Newsday'' said in 1992 that the hotel "offers its own brand of trendiness" compared with the Paramount, while the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' said the hotel's design "would knock the socks off the cast of ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

''". A writer for the ''

Montreal Gazette ''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspape ...

'' stated: "I think it's supposed to appeal to English rock stars." Gruzen Samton Steinglass Architects and Starck both received 1991 Honor Awards from the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

(AIA) for their redesign of the hotel. Critics also praised the lobby. Architect

Robert A. M. Stern Robert Arthur Morton Stern (born May 23, 1939) is an American architect, educator, and author. He is the founding partner of the architecture firm, Robert A. M. Stern Architects, also known as RAMSA. From 1998 to 2016, he was the Dean of the Y ...

said that the lobby was "innovative, yet it's fun, and all the design precedents have been twisted and given a new look". ''USA Today'' wrote that "what he Royalton hasbrought back to New York is lobby socializing, a staple of the '20s society." A reviewer for ''The New York Times'', writing in 2005, said: "If the bleeding edge is where your black-and-red Louis Vuitton yearns to rest, there are hotter spots than the slightly scuffed Royalton", although he said the hotel's ambience "never goes completely out of style". Two years later,

Alice Rawsthorn Alice Rawsthorn OBE (born 1958 in Manchester) is a British design critic and author. Her books include ''Design as an Attitude'' (2018) and ''Hello World: Where Design Meets Life'' (2013). She is chair of the board of trustees at the Chisenhale ...

wrote for the ''Times'' that Starck's lobby had been designed "as a metaphor for Manhattan, and the generations of immigrants who have settled there". The ''Times'' described the new lobby fireplace as "something Al Pacino might have in his Manhattan office in ''The Devil's Advocate''." ''Interior Design'' magazine wrote: "Philippe Starck's handiwork, which lasted 19 years before workers began carting it away, may have been the most important hotel lobby of the late 20th century." After the 2007 renovation, ''The New York Times'' said the hotel's restaurant was "anemic and empty" and wrote that, "if the Royalton was infamous for its gorgeous but bumbling staff, only the former part has changed". In 2007, the building was among the top 150 buildings in the United States ranked in the AIA's 2007 survey '' List of America's Favorite Architecture'', receiving a higher rating than the original

Pennsylvania Station Pennsylvania Station or Penn Station may refer to: Current train stations * Baltimore Penn Station * New York Penn Station ** Pennsylvania Station (1910–1963), the predecessor to the present New York City station * Newark Penn Station Trai ...

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Royalton Hotel
{{Hotels in New York City 1898 establishments in New York City 1988 establishments in New York City Hotels in Manhattan Hotels established in 1898 Hotels established in 1988 Hotel buildings completed in 1898 Midtown Manhattan Boutique hotels

Site

Architecture

Lobby

Guestrooms

History

Apartment hotel

Boutique hotel

1980s and 1990s

2000s to present

Critical reception

See also

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