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After being shut for over a decade, the storied Hotel Chelsea is finally taking guests again — even as construction continues.
The hotel on 23rd Street closed in 2011 for reconstruction but was hit with a slew of costly delays and disputes with long-term tenants and the city. Now, 155 restored guest rooms will be on offer starting this summer, the New York Post reports.
“As Hotel Chelsea emerges from rehab, we are offering a few rooms at 'hard hat' rates to guests willing to tolerate a little construction,” the hotel's website says.
A lobby attendant told the Post that operators are hoping for a full opening in September.
The building first opened in 1884, and its famous residents have included Mark Twain, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and Madonna. BD Hotels, led by Richard Born and Ira Drukier, paid $250M for the hotel in 2016 and at the time aimed for a reopening in 2018.
Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman, Leucadia National Corp. Chairman Joseph Steinberg and real estate investment firm Wheelock Street Capital spent $185M trying to renovate the building. Joseph Chetrit bought the property in 2011 for $78M; before then, the families that had owned it sometimes allowed artists who lived there to pay rent in installments and sometimes accepted artwork instead of payments. Ackman remains an owner at the property.
Though BD Hotels envisioned a two-year turnaround, multiple issues have slowed its reimagining. Long-term stabilized tenants in the property had claimed they had been harassed by construction into leaving, and the city issued a stop-work order in 2018.
BD lodged a lawsuit against the NYC Department of Buildings and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, alleging the order had cost them millions in delays. HPD had claimed the hotel had “single-room occupancy multiple dwelling” designation, meaning the developers needed to provide a “certificate of no harassment.”
But a document the developers uncovered in city archives revealed the building was exempted from providing that certificate. HPD dropped its case within days, and the city allowed the work to resume.
“It would have been easier in some ways to just walk away,” Drukier told the New York Times last year. “Surprisingly, you get attached to the Chelsea.”
CORRECTION, March 23 1:30 P.M. ET: Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman remains an owner at the Chelsea Hotel. An earlier version of this story described him only as a previous owner. This story has been updated.
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