Hotel St. Moritz

Hotel St. Moritz
The former Hotel St. Moritz building, today Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park, seen in 2010
General information
Location	50 Central Park South, New York City
Opening	1930, 2002 (remodeled)
Closed	1999
Management	Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
Technical details
Floor count	33
Design and construction
Architect	Emery Roth
Other information
Number of rooms	259
Website
[1]

The Hotel St. Moritz was a luxury hotel located at 50 Central Park South, on the east side of Sixth Avenue, in New York City. The structure was extensively rebuilt from 1999-2002 and today is a combination hotel/condominium known as The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park.

The Hotel St. Moritz was built on the site of the old New York Athletic Club. It was designed and built in 1930 by the Hungarian-born architect Emery Roth, and constructed by the Harper Organization, representing Harris Uris and Percy Uris. The estimated cost was about $6,000,000.

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 (1888–1948). In 1950 the hotel was completely redecorated and redesigned, and from the following year it housed the Café de la Paix, said to be the first sidewalk restaurant in New York City.

In 1985, Donald Trump purchased the 775-room hotel from its then owner, Harry Helmsley, for $72 million. Trump sold the hotel just three years later, in 1988, for $180 million to Australian billionaire Alan Bond Bond had to surrender the property to his lender, F.A.I. Insurance, in 1989, when he was unable to repay their loan. In 1990 the hotel became operated by the Interstate Hotels Corporation from Pittsburgh.

In January 1997, Donald Trump announced an agreement with the hotel's owners, F.A.I. Insurance, to gut the building, which was not a designated landmark and could therefore be altered in any way the owners liked, and convert it to a condominium, with the facade covered in glass. The hotel closed on April 20, 1998 However, before any work on the Trump project began, the hotel was sold again just over a week later on April 29, 1998 to hotelier Ian Schrager for $185 million. He reopened the hotel, without any remodeling, as part of his boutique hotel empire. He eventually announced plans for his own renovation of the hotel, but then the hotel was sold again, on November 6, 1999, to a development group which partnered with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company to gut and remodel the structure as a combination hotel/condominium. The structure was then completely remodeled as The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park, with the lower portion remaining a hotel and the top twelve floors converted to eleven enormous condominiums. It reopened in April 2002.