The Plaza is closing..

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Plans for apartments at Plaza hotel draw NY angst

Wed Apr 6, 2005 09:55 PM ET

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By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Somewhere in New York's Plaza hotel, Eloise must be sad.

 

The heroine of children's storybooks who roller-skates through its halls and irks its stodgy guests will need a new place to play next month, when owners close its doors and turn The Plaza into shops and condominiums.

 

The conversion spells an end to such traditions as after-theater drinks at The Plaza's Oak Room and lavish weddings in the Grand Ballroom.

 

"It was the place to go in New York," said 70-year-old Robert Siegel as he chatted with a Plaza doorman on Wednesday.

 

Elad Properties, which bought The Plaza last year for $675 million, plans to spend more than $300 million to build retail space and condominiums that reportedly could fetch up to $20 million. When it reopens in late 2006, the number of hotel rooms will be down to 150 from today's 805.

 

The plans have raised a chorus of objections in Manhattan, from socialites to tourists to maids. And with Elad based in Israel, opponents have run full-page ads in newspapers there.

 

The Rev. Jesse Jackson led a protest; Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with Elad to discuss a compromise, and the City Council is weighing a law to bar hotels from converting more than 20 percent of their space into condominiums or cooperative apartments.

 

JOBS ON LINE

 

Workers marched this week to save 900 Plaza jobs.

 

"If the Plaza goes to condos, they all can," said Howard Leslie, a banquet worker. "That's why we have to stop them."

 

To the world, the 98-year-old hotel is where Truman Capote held his Black and White Ball; Alfred Hitchcock had Cary Grant kidnapped in "North by Northwest;" Neil Simon set "Plaza Suite;" and fans besieged the Beatles on their first visit to New York.

 

 

 

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