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About The Plaza, 768 Fifth Avenue
The Plaza is one of the world's most famous hotels and one of New York City's most important landmarks.
The Plaza Hotel was designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh, the architect who designed the Dakota apartment building at 1 West 72nd Street. It opened in 1907. In 1921, Warren & Wetmore designed an expansion on 58th Street.
The hotel's exterior was designated a city landmark in the 1960s and eight of its public rooms were declared interior landmarks in 2004 after controversy over their future when Elad Properties bought the Plaza that year for $675 million.
Elad agreed eventually to reduce the number of condominiums it would create and to restore many of the building's spectacular interiors including the Palm Court where it has replaced the ceiling with a leaded-glass lay light to recall the original.
The city's landmarks commission has approved the restoration plans of CPS 1 Realty LLC, which include new fiberglass finials, a new 21st floor and small additions facing the courtyard on the 19th and 20th floors.
Costas Kondylis & Partners LLP is the architect of record for the conversion.
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc., subsequently entered an agreement to manage the Plaza Hotel, which closed for a $350 million renovation for almost two years.
It reopened in early 2007, with 181 condominium apartments and 282 hotel units/keys. Of the 282 hotel units/keys, 152 can be sold as "hotel-condos," in which purchasers own part of the condominium entity and have the right to stay for up to four months a year in one of the units, all of which are being sold fully furnished.
The building separately offered 152 condo hotel rooms on floors 11 through 21 and also has a transient hotel with 130 rooms on floors 4 through 10.
Under the terms of the agreement, according to Shannon Lynch, a spokesperson for Elad Properties, Fairmont will manage both the hotel units and the condominium apartments.
Elad received approval from the New York State Attorney General’s office to convert some of its hotel rooms to the condominium apartments, which are being offered for a total of $1,331,000,000.
The “Private Residences” at The Plaza Hotel have their own entrance on Central Park South and a large garden court with cascading fountain at the bottom of the building’s large rectangular lightwell.
Apartments ranged initially in price from about $2 million for a one-bedroom unit facing the courtyard to about $40 million for a high floor unit facing Central Park. A three-bedroom plus library unit with 3,068 square feet on the sixth floor at the southeast turret corner at 48th Street facing Fifth Avenue was priced initially at about $8,600,000. A two-bedroom unit with 2,348 square feet on the 13th floor was priced initially at $7 million.
The "residences" are all on the north and east sides of the building and the hotel rooms are on the south side along 58th Street. Not all of the apartments were to be available initially. Units on the 4th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th floors were to be "released" later.
Many of the smaller hotel rooms are being enlarged for the apartments and have mosaic stone floors by Sicis. Kitchens have Nero Marquina stone counters and Callacata marble tile backsplashes.
The address of the Plaza is 768 Fifth Avenue and 1 Central Park South.
Not all the “Private Residences” at The Plaza Hotel at 768 Fifth Avenue at Central Park South will be McMansions.
The offering plan for the condominium apartments indicated that most floors will have a wide gamut of units. As amended December 16, 2005, the offering for the 181 apartments totals $1,353,017,500, an increase of $26,293,500.
On the 13th floor, for example, unit 1301 is a 622-square feet studio with 1 bath that has a price tag of $1,312,500.
Unit 1301, however, is a three-bedroom, 3-bathroom unit with 2,656 square feet that has a price of $9,430,000. Unit 1309 is a slightly larger 3-bedroom, 3-bath unit that has a price of $13,838,500. Unit 1311 is a one-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath apartment with 1,245 square feet that is priced at $3,600,000. Unit 1306 is an alcove studio with one bath and 820 square feet that is priced at $1,837,500. Unit 1303 is a two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath apartment with 1,985 square feet that is priced at $8,405,000.
Some of the better units are on the 20th floor. Unit 2001 is a 5-bedroom, 5 bath duplex with 5,613 square feet of interior space and 300 feet of exterior space that is priced at $29,500,000 and Unit 2009 is a 4.5-bedroom, 5-and-half bath triplex with 6,316 square feet of interior space and 229 square feet of interior space and a price of $32,500,000.
The offering plan also included 126 storage bins in the building’s lower concourse that range in size from 25 to 37 square feet and were priced at $30,000 to $44,000.
The offering noted that the El-Ad Group Ltd. Entered into an agreement with Kingdom XXII (USA) Ltd., a Delaware corporation owned and controlled indirectly by a trust for the benefit of HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Abdulaziz Alsaud for an indirect 49.9 interest in the transient hotel and an indirect 25 percent ownership of the condo hotel shares.
Orly Hackmon, a principal of The El-Ad Group Ltd., is the secretary of the sponsor and Mike Naftali, who owns 49 percent of El-Ad Properties NY LLC, is the president.
When the famous hotel expanded in 1921, the addition blocked the natural light hitting the skylight, which was removed a generation later because of blackout concerns for air raids. The new plan utilizes artificial lights above the skylight.
Each of the 152 Hotel Residences at the Plaza was available for purchase by individual private buyers who can stay at their hotel condominium residence for up to 120 days a year. Other times the residence will return to the program of rooms and suites offered to hotel guests (or be rented out by individual owners), generating income for the condominium owners. The owner will receive 95 percent of the revenue from the rental program, while the manager receives a 5% management fee. The 95 percent of revenue received by the owner is offset by such expenses as nightly turndown and cleaning fees, a monthly contribution to the hotel’s furniture, fixtures and equipment fund, and marketing, among other related expenses.
The centennial of the building was celebrated October, 2007 with a large fireworks display as guests watched from Grand Army Plaza sipping splits of Moet & Chandon White Star champagne with straws.
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