Gonk Changes Hands

From the Associated Press:

The Algonquin Hotel — where writers like Dorothy Parker once drank and cracked wise — has been sold.

Miller Global Properties Fund, a Denver-based firm, bought the historic hotel from Dallas-based Olympus Real Estate.

Miller's president would not comment on the price, but one real estate source pegged it at $35 million.

"It's an extremely attractive historic landmark," Miller said. "It was built in 1902 and obviously has got a lot of history and an excellent reputation."

Located at 59 W. 44th St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues, the Algonquin has changed hands several times.

In 1987, Japan's Aoki Corporation bought it and did a $22 million renovation, including installing new elevators.

In 1997, the Camberley Hotel Company bought it in partnership with Olympus and conducted its own $4 million renovation, expanding the number of rooms from 165 to 174.

Miller's company will now install high-speed Internet access in every room.

"We'll be analyzing immediately what other technical services and advances we can install throughout the hotel," Miller said.

During the 1920s and '30s, writers like Parker, Robert Benchley and Harold Ross formed a lunch club called the Round Table in the hotel's Oak Room.

Today, the hotel's rooms rent for over $250 a night.

"If you're middle-aged and live in the midwest, you've heard of the Algonquin Hotel. Not a lot of hotels can say that," said Bill Shanahan of Cushman & Wakefield.

Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Thursday, June 27, 2002 at 9:49 PM | Permalink