Park Lane Hotel

36 Central Park South | also 33 West 58th Street, 34 Central Park South | Midtown | built 1972

Open on the map10 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1971

    Harry and Leona Helmsley make their home in a triplex atop the Park Lane

    When the Park Lane went up on Central Park South, its owners moved into it. Harry Helmsley and his wife, Leona, took the top of the tower as their residence, a three-story triplex that included a swimming pool 22 feet long. By the time the hotel came up for sale in 2013, it was one of the last properties remaining in the Helmsley estate.

    Source: Internet Archive

  2. 1971

    Harry Helmsley opens the Park Lane Hotel on Central Park South

    Developer Harry Helmsley hired Emery Roth & Sons to design a hotel on Central Park South between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, with construction running from 1967 to 1971. Helmsley-Spear, the real estate company Harry ran with his wife Leona, owned and operated the finished Park Lane Hotel.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 2013

    July

    Witkoff's group wins the Park Lane auction with Jho Low's money behind it

    In July 2013 developer Steven Witkoff won the auction for the hotel and signed a $654 million contract. Witkoff and his partners put up 15 percent; the Malaysian financier Jho Low agreed to supply the rest, including a $100 million nonrefundable deposit, twice the usual amount. At the last minute Low took a 55 percent stake and brought in Abu Dhabi's Mubadala for 30 percent. The Justice Department later said the money came from the Malaysian fund 1MDB.

    Source: Internet Archive

  4. 2014

    Save Park Lane NY campaigns to have the hotel landmarked

    In 2014 a grassroots group called Save Park Lane NY formed to keep the hotel standing, arguing that it deserved protection from the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission. The group was due to present its request to Manhattan's Community Board 5 on October 6, 2014. The campaign ran against Witkoff Group's plan to replace the 1971 building with a supertall tower, and the hotel never gained landmark status.

    “Save Park Lane NY was to present the request for landmark preservation of the Park Lane Hotel to Community Board 5 on October 6, 2014.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 2015

    May 27

    Witkoff unveils 1 Park Lane, a 1,210-foot tower to replace the hotel

    In May 2015 renderings appeared for 1 Park Lane, Steve Witkoff's plan to replace the Helmsley hotel with a 1,210-foot residential tower. It would have held 88 apartments in about 350,000 square feet, with a 100-foot pool, a library, a spa and a private restaurant among 40,000 square feet of amenities. The project was priced at $1.7 billion, against expected sales of $2.3 billion, with completion aimed at 2020.

    Source: Internet Archive

  6. 2016

    January 28

    Witkoff shelves the condo tower and weighs renovating the hotel instead

    In January 2016 Witkoff said he was pausing the condominium conversion of the Park Lane. He and partners including Harry Macklowe and Howard Lorber were considering a renovation of the 46-story hotel instead. He pointed to a slowdown in ultra-luxury sales, with new towers crowding 57th Street, and said the group had suspended raising money through the EB-5 investor-visa program. Because the hotel produced cash flow, he said, the owners could afford to wait.

    Source: Internet Archive

  7. 2017

    November

    The Park Lane's forced sale draws no bids near $1 billion

    After the Justice Department moved to seize assets tied to Jho Low, Witkoff's group agreed to sell the hotel and hoped to get about $1 billion. When offers were due in late 2017, the Times reported that none came anywhere near that figure. The paper tied the silence to a soft high-end market and the retreat of the Asian and Middle Eastern buyers who had snapped up other New York trophies, though a JLL hotel executive not involved in the sale called it the world's greatest site for development.

    Source: Internet Archive

  8. 2018

    December

    The Justice Department seizes a stake in the hotel linked to the 1MDB scandal

    Jho Low, a Malaysian financier and co-owner of the Park Lane Hotel, defaulted on the hotel's mortgage in 2016 as investigators tied his fortune to money looted from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund; Shanghai's Greenland Group separately bought a 41% stake in the property that year. In December 2018 the U.S. Justice Department took a $140 million stake in the hotel from Low as part of the settlement.

    Source: Wikipedia

  9. 2023

    August

    Qatar's sovereign fund buys the Park Lane for $623 million

    Qatar's sovereign wealth fund bought the Park Lane from the Witkoff Group in August 2023 for $623 million, below the $660 million Witkoff's group had paid in 2013. By then the plan for a supertall tower had been dropped. Witkoff's group had refinanced the hotel in 2019, borrowing $615 million from Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase.

    “In August 2023, the Qatar Investment Authority bought the Park Lane Hotel from Witkoff for $623 million.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  10. 2025

    July 23

    Qatar's fund moves toward turning the Park Lane into a five-star hotel and residences

    In July 2025 The Real Deal reported that the Qatar Investment Authority was moving ahead with a redevelopment of the Park Lane into a five-star hotel with hotel condominiums and residences. Consultants and architects were still weighing options, and it was unclear whether the existing tower would be kept or demolished, or whether adjoining properties, including the medical-office condo building at 30 Central Park South, would be folded in. The article counted 631 rooms in the hotel.

    Source: Internet Archive

Further reading

Nearby

All 178 buildings with stories in Midtown