The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park

50 Central Park South | also 1430 Avenue of the Americas, 53 West 58th Street | Midtown | built 1931

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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1930

    Emery Roth designs the Hotel St. Moritz on Central Park South

    Hungarian-born architect Emery Roth designs the 33-floor Hotel St. Moritz at 50 Central Park South, built in 1930 where the old New York Athletic Club once stood. The Harper Organization constructs it for developers Harris and Percy Uris at an estimated cost of about $6 million. The hotel has about 1,000 rooms served by six elevators.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1932

    The Bowery Savings Bank takes over the St. Moritz and passes it to hotelier S. Gregory Taylor

    In 1932 the Bowery Savings Bank assumed ownership of the Hotel St. Moritz, which the Harper Organization had built for Harris and Percy Uris at an estimated cost of about $6 million. The bank then sold the hotel to the Engadine Corporation, headed by S. Gregory Taylor (1888-1948), a Greek-American hotel magnate.

    “In 1932, the Bowery Savings Bank took over the hotel and then sold it to the Engadine Corporation, led by the Greek-American hotel magnate S. Gregory Taylor…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1951

    The Café de la Paix opens at the St. Moritz as a pioneering sidewalk restaurant

    After the hotel is completely redecorated and redesigned in 1950, it houses the Café de la Paix from the following year, billed as the first sidewalk restaurant in New York City. The Paris-based Austrian caterer Rumpelmayer's also runs a tea room, grill and roof garden in the hotel, popular for its coffee and ice cream.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1959

    Summer

    Carol Burnett spots Marlene Dietrich at Rumpelmayer's

    In the summer of 1959 the comedian Carol Burnett catches sight of Marlene Dietrich at Rumpelmayer's, the tea room in the St. Moritz, an encounter she later describes in her memoir This Time Together. Liza Minnelli mentions the tea room in a song from her 1974 concert run at the Winter Garden Theatre, which won a Tony Award. The hotel also appears in the 1978 film Magic, where Anthony Hopkins's character stays there.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1985

    Donald Trump buys and resells the hotel within three years

    Donald Trump buys the 775-room hotel from its owner Harry Helmsley for $72 million in 1985. Three years later he sells it to the Australian businessman Alan Bond for $180 million. Bond cannot repay his loan and in 1989 surrenders the property to the lender, F.A.I. Insurance.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1989

    An Australian insurer takes the St. Moritz from Alan Bond after he fails to repay his loan

    Alan Bond, the Australian yachtsman and brewer who won the America's Cup in 1983, had bought the hotel from Donald Trump with money borrowed from F.A.I. Insurances. When he failed to repay the loan, F.A.I. took the hotel in lieu of foreclosure in 1989 and also bought the land, for $15.8 million. F.A.I.'s total investment in the hotel and its land came to $195 million.

    Source: Internet Archive

  7. 1997

    Trump and the hotel's owners plan to gut the St. Moritz and sell it as condos called Trump Pinnacle

    Real estate sources said Donald Trump and the Sydney-based owners had agreed to turn the 35-story hotel, by then a dowdy refuge for bargain tour groups, into luxury condominiums. The plan called for gutting the 1930 building and sheathing its brick facade in bronze-tinted glass, with a tentative name of Trump Pinnacle. Because the hotel was not a landmark, the conversion needed no special permits, only state approval.

    Source: Internet Archive

  8. 1998

    April 29

    Ian Schrager snatches the St. Moritz from Trump days after it closes

    Hotelier Ian Schrager bought the St. Moritz for $185 million on April 29, 1998, nine days after the hotel closed and a month before Trump was to start tearing it apart for condos. Schrager planned to reopen within 30 days without changing anything at first, and said he would probably later bring in Philippe Starck to redesign the lobby and rooms. Owner F.A.I. said it sold because its projected profit from the Trump project had dropped by about $20 million.

    Source: Internet Archive

  9. 1999

    November 6

    Millennium Partners buys the St. Moritz to rebuild it as a Ritz-Carlton hotel and condominiums

    The hotel changed hands again on November 6, 1999, when Millennium Partners, a development group headed by Christopher M. Jeffries, bought it. With the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, the group gutted the building and remade it as a hotel and condominium combination. The lower part stayed a hotel, and the top twelve floors became eleven large condominiums.

    “…the hotel was sold again, on November 6, 1999, to a development group, Millennium Partners, headed by Christopher M. Jeffries…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  10. 2002

    April

    The hotel reopens as The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park

    The St. Moritz closes on April 20, 1998, and is sold nine days later to Ian Schrager for $185 million. In November 1999 Millennium Partners buys it and partners with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company to strip the building and rebuild it. It reopens in April 2002 as The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park, with a hotel in the lower part and eleven condominiums in the top twelve floors.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 178 buildings with stories in Midtown