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Chelsea Hotel

By Stephen Duffy 1/13 11:32am

CHECKING OUT

I'll crash whenever I want.

Patti Smith Bows to Chelsea Tenants Pressure—But Not Before Playing a Private Gig

After releasing a statement on Wednesday outlining why she was still going to perform for the tenants at the Chelsea Hotel—despite their wishes—Patti Smith changed her mind and pulled out of the performance shortly before she was due onstage last night.

However, even though she bowed to the pressure and cancelled her Thursday performance for the tenants railing against her, The Architect's Newspaper reports how she still did performed at the hotel this week to a crowd of media and art folks, a private performance for the hotelier on Wednesday. It seems the revered Ms. Smith has suffered from a serious bout of flip-flopping on the issue, which now appears to have been grossly ill judged, leaving her contradicting herself. Read More

3 By Tom Acitelli 8/09/11 2:56pm

$$$

The Chelsea: Everybody in.

Chetrit’s $85 M. Chelsea Hotel Loan; His Junior Partner’s Housing Violations

Real estate investor Joseph Chetrit closed on his nearly $80 million Chelsea Hotel buy early last week, and now information has trickled out about how he and junior partner Clipper Equities paid for it.

They got an $85 million, 36-month loan from Paris-based banking behemoth Natixis. The loan has a 12-month repayment extension option, and was brokered for the borrowers by Meridian’s Ronnie Levine and Aaron Birnbaum. (Real Estate Weekly has more news on the loan.)

Clipper, incidentally, was the controversial would-be buyer of the massive affordable-housing complex in Brooklyn, Starrett City, offering $1.3 billion in 2007. Read More

14 By Tom Acitelli 8/09/11 8:49am

The Transom

Something is happening, but we don't (fully) know what it is...

Chelsea Hotel Passover: A Lot More Than Four Questions as Chetrit Marks the Doors

Shortly before noon last Thursday, a woman with a German accent stepped to the front desk of the Chelsea Hotel, and demanded in clipped English her reservation.

“The hotel’s closed,” said a distracted employee behind the desk. He was holding a severance letter presented earlier by the hotel’s new owner, The Chetrit Group, led by the enigmatic real estate investor Joseph Chetrit, whose holdings include the Willis Tower in Chicago, North America’s tallest building, and over 4.9 million square feet of commercial space in New York City.

“Closed? I have a reservation, please,” the woman said.

She got no answer. Sensing something, she tried again.

“Is this the InterContinental?” Read More

4 By Tom Acitelli 8/02/11 6:15pm

Inn Demand

Twilight.

Era Ends as Joseph Chetrit Closes on Chelsea Hotel Buy

The elusive Joseph Chetrit has closed on his $80 million deal to buy the Chelsea Hotel. According to The Real Deal, he and his representatives finalized things at around 5:30 yesterday afternoon, ending speculation that the deal would fall through and that the Chelsea would survive as it always has for the last century or so: as the craziest inn you could imagine, even by New York standards. Read More

By Nate Freeman 11/03/10 1:28am

Slideshows

The Secret History of the Chelsea Hotel

There may be no building in New York more attached to its aura than the Chelsea Hotel. One glance at the iconic sign and you think of Bob Dylan writing the songs on "Blonde on Blonde," Dylan Thomas passing out after 18 whiskies to never wake again, and Janis Joplin strumming "Me and Bobby McGee."

But Read More

By Chris Shott 2/03/09 11:19pm

Manager Wanted; Historic Hotel; Masochist Preferred

“I just had enough,” said a beleaguered Andrew Tilley, who resigned last week as general manager of the Chelsea Hotel after barely seven months on the job. “I find the whole thing absolutely disgusting.”

Mr. Tilley, 47, is the second consecutive manager to hurriedly check out of the Chelsea after only Read More