Everyone loves taking digs at the Plaza (remember that incredible Vanity Fair takedown?), and now?with apartments re-selling for huge losses and its underground luxury mall a virtual ghost town most of the time?the NYT's Christine Haughney is the latest to get some licks in at the landmark. Detect a sneer in this sentence? "And this spring, steps below where F. Scott Fitzgerald found his muse for The Great Gatsby,' the hotel is opening an upscale food court offering burgers and pizza." That's right, nary a black truffle in sight. The horror! But focusing on the real estate angle, it seems the matter over which boom-born development is the King of New York has been emphatically settled, and it's not looking good for poor Eloise.
Here's the postmortem on the Plaza vs. 15 CPW showdown:
Edward Mermelstein, a real estate lawyer who represented more than two dozen buyers of apartments at the Plaza and 15 Central Park West, said that since both properties opened, his clients preferred 15 Central Park West apartments for its bigger windows and bigger-name residents. It is possible, then, that his buyers want to live near the chief executive of Goldman Sachs at 15 Central Park West, not the former chief executive of Bear Stearns at the Plaza.
"You have the perception at this point that 15 Central Park West is very much a private club," Mr. Mermelstein said. "The Plaza has very much of a feeling of a hotel."
The Plaza? A hotel? Blasphemy! You may have won this round, 15 CPW, but the one thing you'll never have is a burger stand in your basement. Vive le Plaza!
· Dream for the Plaza Fades in a Not-So-Gilded Age [NYT]
· All the sad Plaza coverage you can handle [Curbed]
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