On Demand
Trouble at the Plaza Hotel
Monday, December 08, 2008
Condos in the newly renovated Plaza Hotel have been sold for tens of millions of dollars. Find out why lawsuits have been filed over shoddy construction in those very expensive apartments, and whether the NYC landmark’s renovation has been mishandled. Evgenia Peretz has written an article in the Jan. issue of Vanity Fair magazine called "Eloise Sheds a Tear."
Weigh in: Tell us your memories of the Plaza.
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It's stories like this make Schadenfreude such fun.
Sorry...but zillionaires screwing each other doesn't really signify much when people are putting their pets to sleep because they can't feed them. Must assume the rich realized they had in fact soaked all of the cash out of the middle class and are now engaged in soaking eachother.
I never laughed so hard when I read about the woman who got locked in the Plaza garbage room overnight. It looks like spending a night in the garbage room is better than spending a night in a new Plaza apartment.
The Plaza is beautiful to look at, but I've never understood why the well-heeled would want to live in a tourist attraction.
To walk out your door and be faced with mob of tourists, taxis and horse carriages is highly undesirable. And don't even talk to me about the smell in the air from the unwashed horses.
Regarding the lawyer's letter: It's telling the lawyer doesn't actually point to anything that is false in Evgenia Peretz's reporting. Just standard legalese innuendo and hand-waving designed to sway opinion.
There is no excuse for corrupt developers (which sseems to be more the norm here in NYC), but it serves them right, millionaires throwing there money around to buy a status symbol, sight unseen. If they were stupid enough to trust a company with this track record, so be it.
Fools and their money soon part.
Oh my, the travails of the filthy rich and no surprise Vanity Fair writes an article about how some zillionaire failed to get wide windows.
Leonard seriously, is this a topic I should be interested in when there economic meltdown and millions of jobs being lost.
Speaking of taking something old that's great and ruining it, WYNC needs to dump this lousy website and upload the old one. Unfortunately, the Plaza can't do the same.
To me the story is interesting b/c it is that of the murder of one of NYC's crown jewels, and epitomizes what has happened to NYC under Guilianni then Bloomberg. Never would have believed this could happen to NYC and so fast.
Johnjohn lighten up. Or just listen to Democracy Now--I guarantee you would approve.
As a carpenter I've seen what is 'spec'd' for materials for finish carpentry; it's all about looks. An 'lux'apartment rental had real wood cabinets, however I was fooled when a piece of tape tore it off and revealed treated paper! However, the good money that went into the building was fireproof construction.
I had my first legal drink at Trader Vic's at the Plaza in 1966. I was 18. It was one of those tropical concoctions in a hollowed out pineapple and cost $5. I was with my friend Harvey. There was a gorgeous woman standing, yes, standing at the bar. I remarked to Harvey that she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever laid eyes on. He responded, "For $100 she's yours." I replied, "But Harv, I'd want her to love me." Harvey respnded, "For an extra $20, she'll love you.
Not only millionaires purchased Condos from El-Ad as some of you indicated above. I have purchased from El-Ad a Condo Unit located in Chelsea and I am far from being a millionaire. What I got for what I paid is a disaster. In my opinion, for what El-Ad have been doing with all their new Condos in NYC, some individuals should have been prosecuted and sent to jail. I mostly blame the NYS Attorney General who is grossly failing to do his job as developers of new Condos are under his jurisdiction and his failing to take action sends a message to developers that they can continue with their bad practices.
The developer Elad not only vandalized a great New York landmark - The Plaza they even desecrated a cemetery in their rush to convert the Hugh F. O'Neill building into a condo. Their contractor made no provision to prevent rubble from the conversion process from falling on the Shearith Israel cemetery immediately behind the Ladies Mile era department store structure. What arrogance and one has to be embarassed by an Israeli based developer desecrating a Jewish cemetery of great historical significance.
I heard the owner of Vanity Fair tried to lease the Oak Room for his restaurant company from Elad the PLaza Owner and was unable to get a deal. He instructed his reporter to write a bad article about the plaza as pay back. Vanity Fair should be ashamed.
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