Lotte New York Palace Hotel

Lotte New York Palace Hotel is a luxury hotel in Midtown Manhattan, at the corner of 50th Street and Madison Avenue. The hotel's property includes the historic landmark Villard Houses and an adjacent modern 55-story skyscraper.

Lotte New York Palace Hotel
The Lotte New York Palace Hotel, with the historic Villard Houses in the foreground
General information
Address455 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022
U.S.
OwnerRoman Catholic Archdiocese of New York (land)
Lotte Hotels & Resorts
ManagementLotte Hotels & Resorts
Design and construction
ArchitectVillard Houses: McKim, Mead & White
Helmsley Palace: Emery Roth & Sons
New York Palace: Lee Jablin of Harman Jablin Architects
Website
www.lottenypalace.com

History

In 1882, Henry Villard, a railroad financier, hired McKim, Mead & White to create the Villard Houses, six private brownstone townhouses surrounding a courtyard on Madison Avenue. The architectural firm designed the houses in the Italian Neo-Renaissance style, after the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome.

In the spring of 1974, the developer Harry Helmsley proposed a 55-story hotel for the site of the Villard Houses, called The Helmsley Palace Hotel. To construct his hotel tower, Helmsley hired Emery Roth & Sons, who created its design of dark bronze reflective glass and anodized aluminum to blend with the Villard Houses and the surrounding skyline of Manhattan. The houses were owned by the Archdiocese of New York; Helmsley leased the property for 99 years.[1] The Helmsley Palace Hotel opened in 1981 and was operated by Helmsley until 1992, after which the hotel came under the control of Amedeo Hotels Limited Partnership, a private limited partnership owned by the family of Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei, changing its name to the New York Palace Hotel.[2]

During Helmsley's ownership, his wife Leona Helmsley maintained a strict and intolerant management style which involved her firing staff members for trivial mistakes, an act which gave her the nickname "Queen of Mean". The hotel reverted to its bond holders from Leona Helmsley, and it was ultimately purchased in 1993 by the Sultan of Brunei with the concurrence of the US Bankruptcy Court.[3] The Sultanate of Brunei, through its development company (the Amedeo group), hired Lee Jablin of Harman Jablin Architects for the complete renovation of the hotel and Villard Houses.

Northwood Investors, an American real estate investment firm, bought the hotel from the Sultan of Brunei in 2011.[4]

In May 2015, Lotte Hotels & Resorts, a South Korea-based owner and operator of luxury hotels, agreed to a deal acquiring the hotel for $805 million from Northwood Investors. Lotte Hotels & Resorts completed the acquisition on August 28, 2015.[5] The hotel was then renamed as Lotte New York Palace Hotel.

Description
Courtyard in 2008

Courtyard and lobby

What was once the carriage entrance of the Villard Houses on Madison Avenue is now known as the Courtyard. During the restoration of the hotel, the Courtyard was redesigned to incorporate motifs from the flooring of several 15th-century Italian cathedrals, a nod to its original styling after Rome’s Palazzo della Cancelleria. A two-story lobby joins the Villard Houses building with the newer tower building of the hotel.

Guest rooms

The hotel has around 822 guest rooms and 87 suites, as of March 2016.

The Towers

The Towers at Lotte New York Palace are a subset of 176 accommodations among the rooms in the tower building. The Towers rooms and suites are located on floors 41 and above.[6]

In 2015, The Towers earned a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence. The Towers was ranked #10 on TripAdvisor's Top 25 Luxury Hotels in the United States.[7]

In September 2017, 2018, and 2019, President Donald Trump greeted world leaders for summit meetings during the annual United Nations General Assembly. On May 23, 2018, President Trump attended a roundtable and dinner with supporters at Lotte New York Palace Hotel.[8]

References

Notes

  1. Bagli, Charles V. (December 29, 2000). "What's Fair Rent on the Palace? Royalty and the Church Disagree". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
  2. Helmsley Palace Succession: Brunei Royalty Buying Hotel
  3. From the Vault: New York Palace Hotel, 455 Madison Avenue Commercial Observer, Jan. 13, 2014.
  4. Brandt, Nadja (May 18, 2011). "New York Palace Hotel to Be Sold to Kukral's Northwood". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved September 19, 2012.
  5. Brandt, Nadja (May 30, 2015). "South Korea's Lotte Group buys New York hotel for $805 million". reuters.com. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
  6. "The Towers at Lotte New York Palace". lottenypalace.com. Retrieved September 16, 2015.
  7. "Top 25 Luxury Hotels — United States". Tripadvisor.com. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
  8. "President Trump Discusses Immigration, MS-13 Gang On Long Island". CBS New York. Retrieved May 23, 2018.

Bibliography

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