Morgans Hotel
237 Madison Avenue | Midtown | built 1926
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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.
- 1927
Andrew J. Thomas designs the Hotel Duane for long-term stays on Madison Avenue
The building at 237 Madison Avenue went up in 1927 as the Hotel Duane, designed by architect Andrew J. Thomas for guests staying a long time. A writer of the period described the exterior as a free take on the Italian Romanesque that sat comfortably beside the fraternity clubs building to the north, while the lobby and rooms were decorated in a loose Spanish Renaissance style. The hotel also operated for a time as the Executive Hotel.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1984
Studio 54's owners take over the Executive Hotel to settle a debt and turn it into Morgans
Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell acquired the Executive Hotel, at Madison Avenue and 38th Street, from Mark Fleischman, who had bought Studio 54 while they were in prison. The hotel came to them in exchange for notes he owed. They hired the Paris designer Andrée Putman, held casting calls for doormen and bellhops, and opened Morgans in 1984 as what Vanity Fair calls New York's first boutique hotel.
Source: vanityfair.com
- 1984
Bianca Jagger takes a penthouse suite and Morgans turns a profit in its first year
Bianca Jagger moved into one of the penthouse suites. Rubell told friends that across the hall, Cher's visitors included Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer. Vanity Fair reported that the hotel made a profit in its first year, with 96 percent of its rooms occupied.
Source: vanityfair.com
- 1984
Andrée Putman fills the lobby and rooms with taupe glass, granite and Mapplethorpe photographs
Putman's interiors gave Morgans a two-story balconied lobby with taupe glass walls and bronze mullions, a custom wool rug and floors of three finishes of Italian granite. Guest-room walls were painted in four muted tones and hung with black-and-white photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe made for the hotel. Bathrooms had stainless steel sinks that looked like airplane fixtures and poured granite floors.
“…the walls were painted with a mixture of four muted tones ... specially commissioned black and white photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2005
Ian Schrager steps down as chairman and CEO with a consulting deal worth over $4 million
Ian Schrager left his posts at Morgans Hotel Group, the company built around this first hotel, in June. His consulting deal guaranteed $1.25 million for 2006 and 2007 with another $1.25 million possible in bonuses, plus $750,000 toward private-aircraft use, a car, a driver and free rooms at group hotels. The filing for the group's planned $350 million IPO showed $659.9 million in debt.
Source: nymag.com
- 2011
FelCor Lodging buys Morgans and the Royalton for $140 million
In 2011 the real estate investment trust FelCor Lodging bought Morgans and the Royalton from Morgans Hotel Group for $140 million combined. The Madison Avenue hotel had 17 stories and 117 rooms, between East 37th and 38th streets. FelCor later put both hotels up for sale as it was being absorbed by a rival trust.
Source: therealdeal.com
- 2017
Kash Group and Shel Capital agree to pay $41 million for Morgans and plan micro-condos
In June 2017 Shlomo Bakhash's Kash Group and Shel Capital contracted to buy the hotel for $41 million. They planned about 90 condos on the upper floors averaging 300 to 325 square feet, a ground-floor restaurant, and three floors of hotel rooms or corporate housing. Using 1,500 square feet of extra development rights, they meant to enlarge the building slightly, to about 77,000 square feet.
Source: therealdeal.com
Further reading
- Morgans HotelWikipedia
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