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Hotel Industry News |
Friday August 29th, 2008 |
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Luxury hotel conversions take New York by storm |
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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."
External Source - For the complete article click here
Source - International Herald Tribune
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