NYC Four Seasons to reopen after 4-year feud as ‘Beanie Babies’ tycoon Ty Warner OKs plan to turn 50 rooms into apartments: source
NY Post
The long-shuttered Four Seasons Hotel in New York will finally reopen in September after an epic, four-year battle with reclusive billionaire Beanie Babies tycoon Ty Warner – with the impasse likely broken by converting some rooms into residential units, The Post has learned.
A source with knowledge of the negotiations told The Post that up to 50 of the 368 rooms at the iconic property at 57 E. 57th St. – once known as the most expensive hotel in New York City – will be sold off as apartments.
The new units “would stabilize the operating costs with full-time residents paying hefty maintenance fees,” the source said.
It’s not clear whether the famous Ty Warner Penthouse on the 52nd floor – which has 360-degree views of the city, four balconies and costs $50,000 a night when it was rented out – will be put up for sale.
Reps for Warner and the Four Seasons did not comment.
The hotel has been closed since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 and has been undergoing renovations for the past few years, according to its website, but there was little evidence that substantial work was going on, according to sources close to the property.