| The Taft Hotel Building | |
|---|---|
.jpg) The historic Taft Hotel building in 2024 | |
 Interactive map of The Taft Hotel Building | |
| Hotel chain | Starhotels |
| General information | |
| Location | 152 West 51st Street,Manhattan,New York City |
| Coordinates | 40°45′41″N73°58′58″W / 40.76139°N 73.98278°W /40.76139; -73.98278 |
| Opening | 1926; 99 years ago (1926) |
| Management | Starhotels |
| Height | 226 ft |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 22 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | H. Craig Severance |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 178 |
TheTaft Hotel building is a 22-storypre-war Spanish Renaissance structure that occupies the eastern side ofSeventh Avenue between50th and51st streets, just north ofTimes Square, in theMidtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. In its modern configuration, it features two separate portions with their own entrance on 51st Street. The larger portion is devoted to the residential condominium calledExecutive Plaza, with each of its 440 units being privately owned. Certain units are rented by their owners to the public. A smaller portion of the building containsThe Michelangelo, aStarhotels hotel.
On October 22, 1924, it was announced thatManger Hotels, owned by the Manger brothers, had purchased a block onSeventh Avenue between50th and51st streets from Realty Associates andBing & Bing for approximately $5.5 million, after plans for a sports arena on that site fell through.H. Craig Severance was hired to design a 1,250 room hotel and Bing & Bing were named the general contractors for the project.[1] The twenty-story, Spanish Renaissance-styleHotel Manger opened on November 15, 1926.[2] At the time, the 2,250-room Manger was the largest hotel in theTimes Square area, and the third largest in Manhattan.[3] The development cost more than $10 million (equivalent to more than $178 million in 2024), an enormous amount of money at the time. The hotel was connected to the famousRoxy Theatre, a movie and stage show palace that opened a few months later, on March 11, 1927. The lobby of the Roxy was actually located in the 50th St and Seventh Avenue corner of the hotel structure.Madison Square Garden was a block to the west and drew thousands for major events.
In 1931, Manger Hotels sold the hotel to Bing & Bing,[4][5] which renamed it theHotel Taft, after PresidentWilliam Howard Taft.[6] One of the hotel's most famous features was the Taft Grill.[citation needed] TheGeorge Hall Orchestra (sometimes called the George Hall Taft Hotel Orchestra) performed from the hotel on Monday through Saturday at noon onCBS Radio, starringDolly Dawn.[7] The band's signature song was "Love Letters in the Sand".[citation needed] Other big band performances were byArtie Shaw,Xavier Cugat,Tommy andJimmy Dorsey,Glenn Miller, andTony Pastor.[8]Vincent Lopez performed in residency for 20 years and broadcast a radio show from the hotel, withGloria Parker,Shake the Maracas. Lopez later broadcast a TV show from the Taft on theDuMont Television Network,Dinner Date, from January to July 1950.
In 1957, J.I. Lubin & Associates sold the hotel to Lawrence A. Wien.[9] In 1958, Wien re-sold the hotel to Zeckendorf Hotels Corporation.[10] In 1961, Zeckendorf re-sold the hotel to the Breitbart Corporation.[11]
The 1960 demolition of the Roxy Theatre, the 1968 demolition of Madison Square Garden, the increasing presence of unsavory businesses in the area, and the desire for newer, more elegant hotels contributed to the gradual decay of the Taft Hotel. In 1974, Urban Renewal Housing and Development Corporation, headed by Gilbert M. Federbush, acquired the hotel from Lawrence A. Wien. At the time, the hotel was struggling with a 51% occupancy rate and losing $80,000 a month. A year later, the hotel fell into receivership and was foreclosed on by its lender, thePenn Mutual Life Insurance Company.[12]
From 1984 to 1986, the hotel was converted to mixed use, at a cost of $100 million, buoyed by the economic recovery of the area, especially the 1983 announcement of the $200 millionEquitable Center office tower, across 51st Street to the north.[13]
Taft Partners Development Group, which converted the building, consisted of Steven Goodstein from the Goodstein Construction Company, Hank Sopher of J.I. Sopher & Company and Arthur Cohen, chairman of Arlen Realty and Development Corporation.[13] The architect for the conversion was Wechsler-Grasso-Menziuso.[14] The eighth through the 21st floors were rebuilt as 448 condominiums, known asExecutive Plaza, while the first seven floors were occupied by the 179-roomGrand Bay Hotel at Equitable Center,[15] which opened in October 1986. The hotel and the condominiums had separate entrances side by side on51st Street.[6]
In 1990, Park Lane Hotels International acquired the hotel portion and renamed it theParc Fifty One Hotel. In 1992,Starhotels acquired the hotel for $42 million and renamed itThe Michelangelo.[6] The Executive Plaza residentialcondominium portion of the building was listed in a 2015New York Times article as having the highest proportion ofnon-primary residences of any building in Manhattan, at 74.4%. The building allows owners to rent out their apartments by the month, and most of the apartments are small – some under 400 square feet.[16]
The building includes aRuth's Chris Steakhouse on West 51st Street, and once contained America's largestT.G.I. Friday's restaurant,[17] located in the space that once housed the lobby of theRoxy Theatre. The T.G.I. Friday's closed due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.[18]
