The Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel is a , 51-story hotel located near
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
in
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
, New York City. It faces
7th Avenue,
52nd Street
52nd Street is a -long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan, New York City. A short section of it was known as the city's center of jazz performance from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Jazz center
Following the repeal of ...
, and
53rd Street
53rd Street is a Midtown Manhattan, midtown cross street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan, that runs adjacent to buildings such as the Citigroup Center, Citigroup building. It is 1.83 miles (2.94 km) ...
. It is one of the world's 100 tallest hotels, and one of the
tallest hotels in New York City.
Site
The Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel is at 811
Seventh Avenue in the
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
neighborhood of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
The building's rectangular
land lot
In real estate, a lot or plot 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 same thing) in ...
occupies the western half of the city block bounded by Seventh Avenue to the west,
52nd Street
52nd Street is a -long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan, New York City. A short section of it was known as the city's center of jazz performance from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Jazz center
Following the repeal of ...
to the south,
Sixth Avenue
Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...
(Avenue of the Americas) to the east, and
53rd Street
53rd Street is a Midtown Manhattan, midtown cross street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan, that runs adjacent to buildings such as the Citigroup Center, Citigroup building. It is 1.83 miles (2.94 km) ...
to the north. The site 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 Seventh Avenue and along the side streets.
Nearby buildings include
810 Seventh Avenue
810 Seventh Avenue is a Class-A office skyscraper located a few blocks north of Times Square on Seventh Avenue between 52nd and 53rd streets within Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is owned by SL Green Realty Corp. after ...
to the west; the
New York Hilton
The New York Hilton Midtown is the largest hotel in New York City and world's 101st tallest hotel. The hotel is owned by Park Hotels & Resorts and managed by Hilton Worldwide. At 1,929 rooms and over 150,000 sq ft of meeting space, the hotel ...
to the northeast; Flatotel New York City and
Credit Lyonnais Building to the east; and
Axa Equitable Center to the south.
The site had previously been occupied by the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Company, built in 1892 to designs by
James E. Ware
James Edward Ware (1846 – April 14, 1918) was an American architect, best known for devising the "dumbbell plan" for New York City tenement housing.
He was born in New York City in 1846, and studied at the City College of New York. He began h ...
. The warehouse, designed in the
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
style, had been demolished in 1957.
Architecture
The Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel was designed by
Morris Lapidus
Morris Lapidus (November 25, 1902 – January 18, 2001) was an architect, primarily known for his Neo-baroque "Miami Modern" hotels constructed in the 1950s and 60s, which have since come to define that era's resort-hotel style, synonymous w ...
, Liebman & Associates
in 1960–1962 as the Americana Hotel.
It was constructed by brothers
Laurence Tisch
Laurence Alan Tisch (March 5, 1923 – November 15, 2003) was an American businessman, investor and billionaire. He was the CEO of CBS television network from 1986 to 1995. With his brother Bob Tisch, he was part owner of Loews Corporation. ...
and
Preston Tisch
Preston Robert Tisch (April 29, 1926 – November 15, 2005) was an American businessman who was the chairman and—along with his brother Laurence Tisch—was part owner of the Loews Corporation. From 1991 until his death, Tisch owned 50 ...
, co-owners of the
Loews Corporation
Loews Corporation is an American conglomerate headquartered in New York City. The company's majority-stake holdings include CNA Financial Corporation, Diamond Offshore Drilling, Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, Loews Hotels and Altium Packaging.
Th ...
. The Americana was one of at least eight hotels that
Loews Hotels
Loews Hotels is an American luxury hospitality company that owns or operates 26 hotels in the United States and Canada. Loews' hotels and resorts are located in major North American city centers and resort destinations.
Headquartered in New Yor ...
developed in Manhattan during the early 1960s, as well as one of four developed by Lapidus.
The Diesel Construction Company was the hotel's
general contractor
A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...
,
and Farkas & Barron was the structural engineer.
Form and facade
At 51 floors, with a height of , the hotel was acclaimed for many years in its advertising and by the media as the
tallest hotel in the world, based on the number and height of its inhabited floors.
The base is three stories high and contains the hotel's public rooms. The main entrance, on Seventh Avenue, occupies the northern part of the hotel's Seventh Avenue
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...
, near 53rd Street. It originally contained a full-height glass wall and was slightly angled from the street grid.
The main entrance was also covered with a canopy that contained infrared lamps, which heated the entrance during winter.
A two-story semicircular rotunda projects from the southern part of the Seventh Avenue elevation, near 52nd Street.
This rotunda contained the hotel's restaurants.
The sidewalk on all sides of the rotunda originally had striped paving.
Under the sidewalks were electric cables that could melt snow and ice.
The main part of the Sheraton is a 47-story slab, which is bent in the center. The western part of the
massing
Massing is a term in architecture which refers to the perception of the general shape and form as well as size of a building.
Massing in architectural theory
Massing refers to the structure in three dimensions (form), not just its outline from ...
is angled toward the corner of Seventh Avenue and 52nd Street, while the eastern part runs parallel to the Manhattan street grid. The hotel was designed in this way because
zoning
Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...
regulations prohibited the upper stories from being built any closer to 52nd Street. On the north side, a 25-story wing is perpendicular to the western part of the slab (and slightly angled from the street grid).
Lapidus said the bent massing strengthened the upper stories against wind forces, rather than being intended for aesthetic effect.
''Architectural Forum'' said the slab looked "slim, tall, and elegant" from the east but had a completely different appearance from the west.
The slab is clad in yellow brick and marble.
On the longer elevations of the slab, each story originally contained horizontal strips of windows, installed in stainless-steel frames.
The windows on different floors are separated by
spandrel
A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...
panels of yellow glazed brick. The shorter elevations of the slab are clad with white Vermont marble.
The building also used precast concrete
Mo-Sai Mo-Sai is a method of producing precast concrete Cladding (construction), cladding panels. It was patented by John Joseph Earley in 1940. The Mo-Sai institute later refined Earley's method and became the leader in exposed aggregate concrete. The Mo ...
panels.
The facades of the accommodation blocks are generally intact, but the podium levels were reclad in the 1991 renovation, replacing the varied, light 1960s details with Postmodern squared granite.
Features
The hotel's
superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
is composed of three structural systems.
Floors 1–5 are made of steel members encased in concrete, since these stories contained large public spaces; these steel beams were anchored in the
bedrock
In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet.
Definition
Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...
underneath the building. Floors 5–29 are composed of concrete shear walls for wind resistance. Floors 29–51 are supported by
reinforced concrete column A reinforced concrete column is a structural member designed to carry compressive loads, composed of concrete with an embedded steel frame to provide reinforcement. For design purposes, the columns are separated into two categories: short colum ...
s.
The concrete frame was both easier to pour and cheaper to build compared to a conventional steel frame.
According to Lapidus, his previous projects had all used reinforced concrete, and he did not intend to use steel.
At the time of its completion, the building was the tallest concrete-framed structure in the city.
The hotel's concrete frame saved at least $1 million compared to a steel frame of similar size, since steel costs generally exceeded concrete costs by about .
Lowest stories
The lobby contained gold-and-white and teak furniture, as well as a floor made of white marble.
There was a
colonnade
In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...
of white-marble columns with gold veins, supporting a ceiling with gold domes.
In addition, a set of concrete arches supported a staircase that led to a lower lobby.
This "floating staircase" was made of marble and bronze. The lobby also connected to a bank of elevators.
The hotel contained "nearly an acre of kitchens",
which could accommodate up to 11,000 diners at once.
There were seven kitchens, which took up four basement levels.
The dining rooms were capable of accommodating 6,800 guests.
The dining areas included the Wooden Indian men's bar,
which was themed to the Old West and contained themed wooden carvings.
The La Ronde cocktail lounge, housed within the semicircular rotunda, contained mirrored columns as well as damask tapestries. Wood, copper, and leather furnishings were used extensively in the Golden Spur restaurant.
The hotel also contained a nightclub called the Royal Box,
which had a capacity of 380 seats.
The main ballroom, known as the Imperial Ballroom, could fit 3,000 people at a banquet
or 4,000 at a business dinner.
It measured either
or .
The room was extensively ornamented with bronze, gold-leaf, and marble decoration.
The chandelier, which could be raised and lowered on a winch, cost $50,000. The Imperial Ballroom's projection booth could retract into the ceiling when it was not being used.
There was also a hydraulically-powered revolving stage, which covered
and could be lifted in four sections.
A vehicle lift, which could fit two limousines simultaneously, connected the Imperial Ballroom with street level, allowing guests of honor to drive directly into the ballroom.
There were two large sliding panels, allowing the Imperial Ballroom to be divided into three smaller spaces.
There were also three smaller ballrooms that fit up to 1,000 people;
they were known as the Royal, Versailles, and Princess.
The Royal (or Georgian) Ballroom could fit 1,200 guests and could be divided into a primary ballroom and a separate foyer. The Versailles Ballroom could fit 400 diners or 500 business guests, and the Princess Ballroom could fit 300 people.
The exhibition hall spanned at ground level.
The hotel also had 38 private meeting rooms, each with a capacity of 25 to 500 people.
The basement contained a parking garage with 350 spots. Also part of the hotel was a swimming pool on the 25th story.
Hotel rooms
When the hotel was developed, it contained 2,000 rooms, including 90 large suites.
Originally, the smallest room in the Americana Hotel was a single-bedroom unit measuring . By contrast, the hotel's largest unit had six bedrooms, a three-sided terrace, and its own butler and maid.
Lapidus designed most of the hotel's original furniture.
These included lamps, portraits, and furniture, which were all designed in a mid-20th-century style. The hotel rooms were originally decorated in a white, blue, and gold color scheme, complementing the design of the lower stories.
Lapidus also designed the carpets,
which were installed across each room, extending into the closets.
Each bedroom initially had its own thermostat, telephone, small refrigerator, and combination swivel/rocking chair, as well as a full-width window.
In addition, rooms had their own radio, television, and
Gideon Bible.
Guests could use the televisions in their rooms to watch
closed-circuit television
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...
footage of the ballrooms and exhibition areas.
History
Development
The Americana was developed to serve the large business and convention market in New York City.
At the time, many of the city's hotels were competing with each other to host large conventions. The occupancy rates of the city's hotels had declined from 96 percent in 1946 to 75 percent in 1961, but conventions could attract large numbers of guests, even if only for a short time. In August 1960, the Tisch brothers acquired the Manhattan Storage Warehouse site on the eastern side of Seventh Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets.
The same month, Loew's announced plans for the Americana.
The project would contain 2,000 rooms and, at 50 stories tall, would be the tallest hotel in the world. Morris Lapidus was hired to design the new hotel, which was planned to open in May 1962 at a cost of $50 million.
Loew's had been developing the
Summit Hotel on
Lexington Avenue
Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated as "Lex", is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street. Along it ...
, which was renamed from the Americana to avoid confusion with the newer project. Loew's was also simultaneously developing two motels and a luxury apartment building in Manhattan.
Construction began in September 1960,
and the builders brought an elephant to the site to pour champagne into the concrete
foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
.
E. C. Sherry was hired the next month to direct sales at the hotel.
Lapidus, who had also been designing the nearby Hilton, resigned from the Hilton project by the end of 1960 to avoid a conflict of interest.
Concrete pouring had commenced in July 1961 when all of the building's concrete workers went on
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
* Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
,
which lasted for eight weeks.
All construction at the hotel was paused during the strike, since the hotel was being built using a concrete frame.
The concrete work finally began in late 1961, and the concrete superstructure was initially built at a rate of one story every three days. Above floor 29, one story was completed every two days.
In November 1961, workers hosted a party to celebrate the completion of the main ballroom's floor, which Loew's dubbed "the world's largest ballroom".
Loew's Hotels vice president
Claude Philippe
Claudius Charles Philippe, also known as Philippe of the Waldorf or The Host of the Waldorf, (10 December 1910—24 December 1978) was a British-born French-American restaurateur, catering director, hotelier and businessman, who was the hotel ba ...
and actress
Barbara Eden
Barbara Eden (born Barbara Jean Morehead; August 23, 1931) is an American actress, singer, and producer best known for her starring role as Jeannie in the sitcom '' I Dream of Jeannie'' (1965-1970). Other notable roles include Roslyn Pierce opp ...
attended the hotel's
topping out
In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...
ceremony on May 8, 1962, when a maple tree was hosted to the top floor. The hotel ultimately cost $45 million to construct.
Claude Philippe served as the hotel's manager for only one year after it opened, resigning in 1963.
Americana of New York
The Americana of New York opened on September 24, 1962,
following a press preview on September 20.
Francis Cardinal Spellman
Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an American bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 1939 until his death in 1967, he served as the sixth Archbishop of New York; he had previously served as an auxiliary ...
, cardinal of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York
The Archdiocese of New York ( la, Archidiœcesis Neo-Eboracensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church ( particularly the Roman Catholic or Latin Church) located in the State of New York. It encompasses the borough ...
, blessed the Americana when it was completed.
It was the city's first hotel with more than 1,000 rooms since the
Waldorf Astoria
The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schultz ...
in 1931.
Lilly Daché
Lilly Daché ( 1892 – 31 December 1989) was a French-born American milliner and fashion merchandiser. She started her career in a small bonnet shop, advanced to being a sales lady at Macy's department store, and from there started her own ha ...
operated a beauty salon in the hotel when it opened. As at the Summit, the Americana required that many staff members be able to speak several languages. One of four employees in the hotel's front offices could speak more than one language. The hotel's
concierge
A concierge () is an employee of a multi-tenant building, such as a hotel or apartment building, who receives guests. The concept has been applied more generally to other hospitality settings and to personal concierges who manage the errands of ...
service included staff members who could speak Spanish, French, German, and Italian.
When the Americana opened, its managers claimed that the hotel had received 250 bookings, some as far as four years in advance, worth a cumulative $10 million. This was attributed to the proximity of the
Broadway Theater District
New York City's Theater District (sometimes spelled Theatre District, and officially zoned as the "Theater Subdistrict") is an area and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan where most Broadway theaters are located, as well as many other theaters, ...
and of the shopping areas on
Fifth and
Madison Avenues, as well as the fact that many people were visiting the upcoming
1964 New York World's Fair
The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair was a world's fair that held over 140 pavilions and 110 restaurants, representing 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations with the goal and the final result of building exhibits or ...
.
Shortly after the Americana opened, officials conducted an extensive inspection of the hotel after detecting several building-code violations. The hotel's Royal Box nightclub was renovated in early 1963,
having opened in October 1962 with a performance by
Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...
.
[ The hotel hosted several events, such as the 1963 Tony Awards, which were held in the Imperial Ballroom on April 28, 1963. ]John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
and Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
announced the formation of their music label Apple Corps
Apple Corps Limited (informally known as Apple) is a multi-armed multimedia corporation founded in London in January 1968 by the members of the Beatles to replace their earlier company (Beatles Ltd.) and to form a conglomerate. Its name (pro ...
at a press conference in the Americana in 1968. In addition, the Americana also hosted the New York portion of the Emmy Awards
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
in 1967
Events
January
* January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair.
* January 5
** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...
and again in 1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Januar ...
. The Royal Box hosted performances by musical artists including Harry Belafonte, Nancy Ames
Nancy Ames (born Nancy Hamilton Alfaro on September 30, 1937) is an American folk singer and songwriter. She regularly appeared on the American version of the television series ''That Was the Week That Was''. The TW3 Girl, as she was known, s ...
, Thelma Houston
Thelma Houston ( Jackson; born May 7, 1946) Retrieved . is an American singer. Beginning her recording career in the late 1960s, Houston scored a number-one hit record in 1977 with her recording of "Don't Leave Me This Way", which won the Grammy ...
, Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
, and Peggy Lee
Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalis ...
; it also hosted other performers such as comedian Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
.
On July 21, 1972, American Airlines
American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...
leased the Americana of New York from Loews, as well as the City Squire Motor Inn across the street, and the Americana Hotels in Bal Harbour, Florida
Bal Harbour is a village in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The population was 3,093 at the 2020 US Census.
History
Since the 1920s, the Detroit-based Miami Beach Heights Corporation—headed by industrialists Robert C. Graham, Walter O. Briggs, ...
, and San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...
, for a period of thirty years. American merged the hotels with their existing Sky Chefs Hotels chain, and marketed all the properties under the Americana Hotels brand. The Americana hosted the 1974 NFL Draft
The 1974 NFL draft took place at the Americana Hotel in New York City, New York, on January 29–30, 1974. Each of the 26 NFL teams were granted 17 selections for a total of 442 picks.
Many experts consider the 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers to have h ...
and served as Democratic headquarters for the 1976 Democratic National Convention
The 1976 Democratic National Convention met at Madison Square Garden in New York City, from July 12 to July 15, 1976. The assembled United States Democratic Party delegates at the convention nominated former Governor Jimmy Carter of Geor ...
and 1980 Democratic National Convention
The 1980 Democratic National Convention nominated President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale for reelection. The convention was held in Madison Square Garden in New York City from August 11 to August 14, 1980.
The 1980 convention ...
.
Sheraton
The Americana of New York and the City Squire were sold to a partnership of Sheraton Hotels
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is an international semi-luxury hotel chain owned by Marriott International. As of June 30, 2020, Sheraton operates 446 hotels with 155,617 rooms globally, including locations in North America, Africa, Asia Pacific, Ce ...
and the Equitable Life Assurance Society on January 24, 1979. The Americana was renamed the Sheraton Centre Hotel & Towers.[ Sheraton bought out Equitable's share in the hotel in 1990, freeing them to undertake a nearly $200 million renovation in 1991,] when the hotel was renamed the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers. Following the September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
in 2001, Lehman Brothers' Investment Banking division temporarily converted the first-floor lounges, restaurants, and 665 guestrooms of the hotel into office space.
Starwood Hotels (which had bought Sheraton in 1998) sold the hotel on November 14, 2005, to Host Marriott
Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in hotels. As of February 19, 2021, the company owned 80 upscale hotels containing approximately 46,500 rooms in the United States, Brazil, and Canada.
History
I ...
for $738 million, as part of a $4 billion transaction that included 37 other hotel properties. The hotel continued to be managed by Sheraton, however, and was again renovated from 2011 to 2012 at a cost of $160 million. The name was shortened to Sheraton New York Hotel in 2012 and then changed to Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel in 2013. In 2018, Host Hotels & Resorts attempted to sell the hotel, without success, for $550 million. By 2020, the price had dropped to $495 million. Host sold the hotel to MCR Hotels and Island Capital Group in March 2022 for $373 million, barely half of the 2005 purchase price and a $365 million loss.
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
*
External links
Sheraton New York Times Square official website
{{End
Hotel buildings completed in 1962
Hotels established in 1962
Morris Lapidus buildings
Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)
Sheraton hotels
Skyscraper hotels in Manhattan
Times Square buildings
1962 establishments in New York City