Hyatt Regency Times Square
1601 Broadway | also 1611 Broadway, 1607 Broadway, 1605 Broadway | Times Square | built 1987
Open on the map10 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1921
Irving Berlin's music company keeps its offices at 1607 Broadway for twelve years
From 1921 to 1933 the offices of Irving Berlin Inc. stood at 1607 Broadway, between 48th and 49th Streets, on the block where the hotel now rises. In those years Berlin's Music Box Revue ran at the Music Box Theatre from 1921 to 1925, and he lived in a rooftop apartment at 29 West 46th Street from 1921 to 1926. The Times noted in 2005 that a Crowne Plaza hotel had replaced the office building.
Source: The New York Times
- 1936
The Trans-Lux Broadway Theatre opens as a newsreel house on the site later taken by the Crowne Plaza
The Trans-Lux Broadway Theatre first opened in 1936 as a newsreel house at 1607 Broadway. It was the theater that later became the Grand Pussycat Cinema, and it came down in 1987 to make way for a skyscraper hotel. In the mid-1950s television made newsreel houses obsolete, and the theater turned to double features and first-run films.
Source: cinematreasures.org
- 1967
The Trans-Lux West reopens at 1607 Broadway after a renovation
After a renovation to plans by the architect Drew Eberson, the former Trans-Lux Broadway came back on April 24, 1967 as the Trans-Lux West Theatre. The renovation dated from December 1966. The theater closed during the 1970s, and by 1981 the space was operating as the Grand Pussycat Cinema, whose spectacular neon frontage dominated the entrance.
Source: cinematreasures.org
- 1985
William Zeckendorf Jr. buys the block of porn shops anchored by the Pussycat Cinema's neon sign
In the summer of 1985 a group led by developer William Zeckendorf Jr. bought the Broadway blockfront between 48th and 49th Streets, ending a cluster of sex businesses anchored by the huge neon sign of the Pussycat Cinema. The Times reported in October 1986 that Zeckendorf planned a large hotel there. The sale was one sign of the sex trade's retreat from midtown, where adult shops and theaters had fallen from 147 to 44 in eleven years.
Source: The New York Times
- 1986
William Zeckendorf Jr. announces a Times Square hotel to be designed by Alan Lapidus
In August 1986 the developer William Zeckendorf Jr. announced plans for a hotel on the Broadway block he had bought the year before, to be designed by Alan Lapidus. The city planning commission was then considering rules that would force new buildings in northern Times Square to carry bright signs and deep setbacks. The Holiday Corporation agreed that October to operate the hotel.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1989
Alan Lapidus gives the Crowne Plaza a 100-foot granite arch meant to recall Wurlitzer organs
Alan Lapidus clad most of the hotel in reflective glass, with pink granite at the corners and a 100-foot granite arch at the center of the Broadway facade. He said the arch was meant to recall Wurlitzer organs of the 1930s and 1940s, and the New York Times compared the whole building to a giant jukebox. The deep setbacks at the base and the signs on the first 12 stories followed the city's rules for Times Square.
“Lapidus wanted the arch's design to evoke the design of Wurlitzer organs from the 1930s and 1940s. The New York Times compared the hotel to a "giant jukebox".”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1989
The Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza opens with 200 rooms finished and 129 New Year's Eve bookings
The $300 million hotel opened on December 1, 1989, with only about 200 rooms finished, so that its operators could keep a promised autumn launch. Twelve hours after the doors opened, 129 guests had already reserved rooms for New Year's Eve, according to manager Michael Silberstein, even though the hotel had not advertised. Zeckendorf had won a city tax abatement for the project. The Holiday Inn chain ran the hotel while a group of partners owned the building.
“The Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza opened on December 1, 1989, at a cost of $300 million.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1990
Paul Goldberger calls the new hotel a container for signs that looks best lit at night
Architect Alan Lapidus designed the hotel to meet Times Square zoning that required large signs on new towers, and chose to let the building recede behind them. When Goldberger reviewed it in the Times in August 1990, some sign space was still unrented and temporary metal framing covered part of the facade. He judged that it looked better ablaze with neon at night than by day, and he faulted its marble entrance arch.
Source: The New York Times
- 1992
The little-known hotel hosts Arkansas's delegates in Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign year
In 1992 the Crowne Plaza was chosen to house the Arkansas delegates in the Democratic presidential race. Arkansas was the home state of Bill Clinton, who went on to win the presidency that year. The hotel was then relatively unknown, and the attention made it more popular. The same year its amenity space grew by a story.
“…the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza was selected to host delegates for the 1992 Democratic Party presidential primaries from Arkansas, the home state of Bill Clinton…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2025
After closures, a default and a bankruptcy filing, the hotel reopens as a Hyatt Regency
The hotel closed in March 2020 during the pandemic, and by June Vornado was in default on $330 million of debt. It reopened in November 2022; the next month its owners sought bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11. After closing around January 2025 for renovations, it relaunched on July 15, 2025, under the Hyatt Regency name.
“The hotel closed around January 2025 for renovations and reopened on July 15, 2025, as the Hyatt Regency Times Square.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Hyatt Regency Times SquareWikipedia
Nearby
- Walter Kerr Theatre219 West 48th Street | 12 entries
- Morgan Stanley Building1585 Broadway | 12 entries
- Longacre Theatre220 West 48th Street | 13 entries
- Brill Building1619 Broadway | 14 entries
- Ambassador Theatre219 West 49th Street | 12 entries
- Eugene O'Neill Theatre230 West 49th Street | 17 entries