There’s long been speculation that the Plaza Hotel would close its doors. Hotels don’t seem to have a very long shelf life these days. New amenities are rolled out by competitors, new audio-visual and networking technologies are introduced, new demands are made of conference and banquet space. New hotels can build for the modern marketplace, but older hotels have to pay a fortune to be retro-fit. Add to that the usual wear and tear that a hotel goes through (carpets wear thin, wallpaper fades and let’s not talk about those mysterious stains that turn up in the strangest places), and you wind up with the need for a hotel to close operations for top-to-bottom renovations every couple of decades. Many hotels decide to forgo the renovations. They close down, tear down, go condo.
The Mayflower, the Stanhope and the Regent Wall Street are just a few of the hotels that have closed their doors in the past year. They’ve been supplanted new hotels like the Mandarin Oriental in the Time Warner Center and the so-hideous-it’s-beautiful Westin in Times Square. This cycle of openings and closings has been going on for a long time, which is why there’s been speculation about the fate of the Plaza for such a long time. The question comes up every time the hotel is sold. Donald Trump made some vague threats to go condo when bought the hotel in 1989, but that was just some macho posturing against the hotel workers union.
The truth is that the hotel has looked the worse for wear for a little too long, so when Elad Properties bought the hotel recently, nobody was surprised when they announced that the hotel would close for renovations in April and reopen as a mixed-use building, with condo apartments, retail space and a much smaller “boutique” hotel in one part of the building.
The hotel workers union rallied in front of the Plaza yesterday. The union has formed a Save the Plaza Coalition. They’re enlisting support from politicians, celebrities and members of the community. They’re filing for landmark status for interior sections of the hotel, but the company was likely to preserve that famous dining rooms like the Oak Bar and the Palm Court anyway.
A spokesman for Elad told the Daily News, “This isn’t about landmarks, this is about losing 900 jobs at the hotel.” So what if that’s the case? Since when are 900 working people’s livelihoods of no concern? That’s 900 people with good pay, health care and seniority. That’s an awful lot of middle-aged waitresses, cooks and room attendants having to compete with younger workers for new jobs that won’t pay nearly as much or have the same benefits and security. Elad’s callousness is astounding.
The Plaza will be saved. The building itself is a landmark and is in no danger of being torn down. The famous interiors of its lobby and dining rooms will likewise win landmark status and will remain open to the public. What is in danger of being lost is hundreds of jobs if the hotel closes the vast majority of its guest rooms to the public. I don’t support tax breaks as a solution to keep wealthy owners making a profit. I do think public pressure might convince Elad that gutting the Plaza is not worth their time, and the publicity might inspire a group of buyers to get together and “save the day.” Maybe Donald Trump will buy back one of his formerly prized possessions. He could make a TV show about the renovations. That might pay for the hotel right there.