Chelsea Hotel

Residents of the illustrious-yet-embattled Chelsea Hotel will get some face time with new manager Andrew Tilley over drinks at El Quijote tonight -- including some of the tenants that Mr. Tilley and the hotel's owners have been trying to evict in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, tonight, in the hotel's grand ballroom, calling hours are scheduled for Chelsea inhabitant Angela O'Conner, 46, who was found dead late last week in a room on the ninth floor, after neighbors complained of a nasty odor.

Welcome to the Chelsea, Mr. Tilley!

It's a precarious position to be in: Since taking the daunting job several weeks ago, the former Hard Rock Hotel frontman has publicly sought to smooth over lingering tensions between longtime Chelsea tenants and the new regime, recently issuing a friendly introduction letter and  read more »

Gay-rights activist Storme DeLarverie -- who famously punched a cop during the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion -- will be honored tonight during an exhibit of artworks at the famously arty Chelsea Hotel, where Ms. DeLarverie also resides.

"The Stonewall Veterans Association is bringing the blue Cadillac for Storme," said event organizer and abstract painter Susan Olmetti, referring to the convertible Ms. DeLarverie often commandeers for the city's annual Gay Pride Parade.

The event, which begins at 6 p.m. at the famous hotel, located at 222 W. 23rd St., will also feature live portraiture by noted artist Antony Zito.

Full details are as follows:

MEDIA AVAILABLE: Aug.  read more »

It's potty time at the embattled Chelsea Hotel, where Arnold Tamasar has been hired as the new director of operations, replacing the much maligned former manager, Glennon Travis.

Chelsea Hotel gossip site Living With Legends notes that Mr. Tamasar is the former assistant director of housekeeping and style at the W New York Times Square Hotel, where he earned accolades from toilet tissue giant Kimberly-Clark for maintaining restrooms with the highest standards of cleanliness and ambiance:

The restrooms overflow with greenery. There are three tiers of wheat grass, Egyptian green limestone and white oak doors with gingko leaves embedded in the frosted glass. For special occasions such as weddings or wine tastings, the hotel adds an extra touch by providing a restroom attendant to hand out towels.

His expertise should come in handy at the old Chelsea, where plumbing issues are quite prevalent.

Developers like Donald Trump and chocolatiers like Alison Nelson aren't the only ones eyeballing real estate in Dubai.

New York magazine reports that at least two Manhattan nightlife impressarios, Pink Elephant owner Josh Kaiser and Star Lounge proprietor Charles Ferri, are both planning to open new posh boites in the emirate.

In fact, I spoke with Mr. Ferri back in May about his Middle Eastern aspirations:

"Dubai is super important right now," he said. "We're looking to do a big, big club out there. They're basically flying me out there for a month."

The new venue would be located in a hotel, he added -- one of the few types of places the emirate permits booze.

Today marked the ceremonial ribbon-cutting of the hugely hyped Chelsea hotel in Atlantic City.

Hotelier Curtis Bashaw recently sat down with The Observer to discuss the $110 million project, which aims to lure more young, hip New Yorkers to South Jersey's gritty gaming town and otherwise restore some of the ancient seaside destination's long-lost glamour.

"We do a lot of real estate projects -- we've done ground-up buildings in the city and all sorts of other stuff -- but these hotel renovation projects are among the most challenging and rewarding and pleasurable projects," said Mr. Bashaw, 48, who, alongside his Cape Advisors partner Craig Wood, has combined an old Howard Johnson and Holiday Inn into a single 330-room boutique hotel on the boardwalk.  read more »

Location: How did you first get into the hotel business?

Mr. Bashaw: When I got out of college, I bought a building in Cape May, N.J., and renovated it into a hotel in 1989, called the Virginia. … And then we bought another one called Commerce Hall, which we opened in 2002; 110 rooms, built in 1879, really amazing building.

Sounds like a lot of renovation work.

Well, we love renovating. That’s why this Atlantic City project is so fun for us.

So, these are two hotels, a HoJo’s …

And a Holiday Inn, and we’re combining them.  read more »

The esteemed and embattled Chelsea Hotel has yet another new manager.

Hotel blog Living With Legends has the scoop that former Hard Rock Hotel boss Andrew Tilley is taking over today, becoming the hallowed Bohemian enclave's third manager in just over a year.

Mr. Tilley replaces former corporate manager BD NY Hotels, the Richard Born and Ira Drukier-led outfit fired this past April after just 10 tumultous months in charge.

The previous manager, legendary hotelier Stanley Bard, had overseen the hotel's operations for nearly 50 years before his controversial dismissal last summer.

Nightclub impresario Charles Ferri already runs one bar in the basement of the legendary Chelsea Hotel: His swanky Star Lounge, which opened in 2007, is where modern-day would-be Dennis Hoppers like Josh Hartnett and Zach Braff come to add their contributions to the long list of artistic achievements at the Chelsea, often involving rousing karaoke numbers.

Now, Mr. Ferri is planning another one at ground level: The Chelsea Hotel Legends Cafe & Bar, according to his Web site, would include a “sidewalk cafe, lobby and back bar,” offering wireless Internet (“for cafe members”) and serving “fine coffees, teas, brews and foods” amid “artwork by legendary Chelsea alumni.” He calls it “Bohemia reborn.” (“Project in planning,” according to the site.)  read more »

This reporter was witness to some tense moments at the Chelsea Hotel over the weekend, including a verbal confrontation (pictured above) at the front desk between hotel vice president David Elder and hotel tenant Arthur Nash.

No punches were thrown, but the incident clearly spooked Mr. Elder. In recent days, a new security detail has been patrolling the hotel’s lobby and hallways. The hulking guys in suits have been particularly attentive to Mr. Nash.

The initial standoff happened during the second night of a photography exhibit entitled “Chelsea Hotel Through the Eyes of The Photographers,” scheduled to coincide with the historic hotel's 125th anniversary. But it also came at a time of lingering tensions inside the iconic lodge.

Mr. Elder is at the center of the controversy. It was his 2005 lawsuit that ultimately resulted in the highly-publicized ouster of longtime manger and majority owner Stanley Bard. Thus, he has taken the brunt of some residents’ anger. “Greed” has been scrawled on his door; excrement left on his doormat—someone even sent him a dead fish in the mail. And, the hotel blog, Living With Legends, has fervently chronicled Mr. Elder’s longstanding California court battle with his elderly father-in-law, the writer Piri Thomas, over more than $1 million in dividends reaped from hotel profits.

“I’m not doing an interview,” Mr. Elder said on Saturday, mingling with guests just one night after he was chased from the exhibit hall by a masked doppelgänger dressed in a hotel bathrobe. (A stink bomb had earlier disrupted the show.)  read more »

Jann Paxton is something of an enigma around Manhattan’s most mythical inn, the Chelsea Hotel on West 23rd Street.

“I’ve been told that people call me ‘the ghost of the Chelsea,’” he said, “because I’m never seen. I’m kind of a hermit. … I almost never leave my bedroom—let alone the apartment.”

And yet, he may soon have to: On May 12, the 46-year-old Norfolk, Va., native is expected to pay more than $59,000 that he allegedly owes in back rent, according to a recent court order, or else lose his spacious isolation chamber on the hotel’s fifth floor.  read more »

It's been years since the famous Chelsea Hotel opened up its Grand Ballroom. On Friday, the doors will finally be unlocked for an exhibit of more than 100 photographs taken at or inspired by the 125-year-old artistic enclave.

The show, curated by Chelsea resident and photographer Linda Troeller with the help of hotel co-owner (and rumored interim manager) David Elder, opens May 9 and runs through Sunday, May 11, from noon to 6 p.m.

The exhibition comes at a pivotal time for the iconic-yet-embattled lodge, which saw its second management shakeup in less than a year last week.  read more »

BD NY Hotels, the Richard Born and Ira Drukier-led outfit hired last year to replace eccentric longtime Chelsea Hotel manager Stanley Bard, has filed for arbitration after being fired by the hotel's governing board for "willful misconduct."

The controversial management team, which installed a rookie, 26-year-old Glennon Travis in the place of the veteran manager, Mr. Bard, has claimed in court papers that it has "fully performed its obligations" under a three-year contract, signed last June, and further asserted that the hotel was more profitable on its watch than when Mr. Bard ran the place.  read more »

Rumors have been circulating for days about the looming departure of Glennon Travis, controversial manager of the embattled Chelsea Hotel.  read more »

Legendary hotelier Stanley Bard doesn't hang out in the lobby of his beloved Chelsea Hotel as often as he used to.

But, two weeks ago, the hotel's infamously ousted manager made a rare appearance, joining the director Milos Forman (himself a former hotel resident) for an on-camera interview smack-dab in the middle of the lobby.

"The new management comes running out of the back and is like, 'You can’t shoot that here!'" said the writer Ed Hamilton, a 13-year resident of the iconic lodge on West 23rd Street. "He tried to charge Stanley $600 to film in the lobby. Of course, Stanley wouldn't pay that."

Mr. Hamilton relayed the recent lobby incident during a panel discussion about the historic and embattled hotel last night at the Museum of the City of New York.

Mr. Hamilton, author of Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws of New York’s Rebel Mecca, interviewed Mr. Bard himself recently for a short video by fellow hotel resident and filmmaker Sam Bassett.

In the interview, played during the panel discussion, Mr. Bard took a few jabs at the hotel's controversial new managers.  read more »

Legendary hotelier Stanley Bard will deliver a videotaped "message of hope" tonight at the Museum of the City of New York.

Hear what the charismatic former manager of the embattled Chelsea Hotel has been up to since his controversial ouster last summer, what he thinks about the new management and ongoing eviction proceedings, as well as his vision for the future of the iconic 125-year-old lodge, of which he remains the majority owner.

Mr. Bard's remarks will follow a panel discussion with preservationist Edward Kirkland and writers Ed Hamilton, author of the 2007 book Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws of New York’s Rebel Mecca, and Sherill Tippins, author of the forthcoming Dream Palace: The Extraordinary Life of the Chelsea Hotel.

The event starts at 6:30.  read more »

I'VE COME TO SUCK YOUR WALLET! "The vampires of the second gilded age are upon us, sucking the life out of the city and discarding the poor and artistic to make way for their steel and glass crypts, I mean condos."

A commenter regarding Chris Shott's update on the Chelsea Hotel.

The first retail casualty of the embattled Chelsea Hotel's 2007 managerial coup d'etat has reopened on West 36th Street, near Macy's, according to British newspaper The Independent [via Living With Legends]:

For 44 years, Capitol Fishing Tackle lived next to the notorious Chelsea Hotel....  read more »

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New York reported this week that the old Hotel Breslin on Broadway would soon become an East Coast version of "Seattle's hipster hostelry," Ace Hotel:

It will be redesigned by the architects that de-Starcked the Royalton, Roman and Williams, and turned into something that should make one of the last somewhat-desolate parts of Manhattan groovy. Ace is bringing in Rudy’s Barber Shop (like the one in the downtown L.A. Standard) and an outlet of the Portland coffee shop Stumptown.  read more »

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So much for the Chelsea Hotel's resident "eurotrash beachbum."

Glennon Travis, the new director of operations for the embattled bohemian enclave, whom The Observer profiled last week, has scrapped his revealing MySpace page following the article's publication.

Nevermind that part about "[d]espite the teasing, Mr. Travis has yet to remove or even alter his MySpace presence."

Yet the new guy continues to provide more juicy gossip for writer Ed Hamilton's blog about hotel life, Living With Legends.

Mr. Hamilton further reports that Mr. Travis is engaged to be married: "Congratulations Glennon!"

Glennon Travis, 26, manages the Chelsea with an officious air. And he’s got a MySpace page! Stanley Bard he’s not.  read more »

It's often said that the ghost of Sid Vicious hangs out around the first-floor elevator at the Chelsea Hotel. Current resident Ed Hamilton may have also spotted the spectre of Thomas Wolfe.

Today's Daily News adds a new twist to the hotel's haunted lore:

Swanky Star Lounge, located in the hotel's basement, has lately seen a rash of strange events, including an unexplained power outage.

After sawing through the ceiling, workers reached a tangle of wiring that had been rearranged.

"We had to cut the drywall to get to these wires, and they were switched," says [owner Charles] Ferri. "How could anyone even get to these wires? It's still a mystery."

The incident prompted Ferri, a skeptic, to reexamine a string of odd happenings. Lights had routinely flicked on and off. Odd noises could sometimes be heard from the bar's back-room office, but ceased upon inspection. Once, the furniture in the locked lounge was rearranged overnight.

A visiting self-proclaimed psychic told Ferri that she sensed the presence of an older woman in the bar.

"If they bought enough bottles," Mr. Ferri said of the phantoms, "I would for sure let them have the space."

The new managers of the historic Chelsea Hotel have launched a revamped Web site for reservations and information about the iconic lodge on West 23rd Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues.

The "History" section drops the usual references to famous hotel inhabitants Dylan Thomas and Sid Vicious but makes no mention of the old manager, Stanley Bard, whose ouster after nearly 50 years stirred up so much controversy this year.

"It’s hard to deny that, besides being one of the chief celebrities of the hotel, he had a little bit to do with making this place the unique artistic attraction that it is today," writer and hotel watchdog Ed Hamilton said on his blog, Living With Legends.

Mr. Bard used to say that getting into the Chelsea was harder than getting into an Ivy League school. Now you can check-in with the simple click of a mouse.

Quoteth hotel frequenter Bob Dylan: "The times they are a-changin.'"

Artsy denizens of the embattled Chelsea Hotel turned out en masse to the not-so-bohemian Barnes & Noble on Sixth Avenue and 21st Street last night, as fellow hotel inhabitant Ed Hamilton read passages from his new book, Legends of the Chelsea Hotel.

"It's good he decided to dress up," one attendee joked as Mr. Hamilton took the podium dressed in jeans, a button-up shirt, and a blue baseball cap bearing the logo of a recent New York blogger summit. (Mr. Hamilton also operates a hotel-centric blog called Living With Legends.)

Painter Hawk Alfredson and photographer Mia Hanson (who's also pictured in the book) were among those present.

Before delving into the text, Mr. Hamilton waxed nostaglic for the hotel's old junky-friendly vibe and bemoaned its becoming "more and more of a fancy boutique hotel."

He described the book as part fact, part fiction. During the reading, Mr. Hamilton pulled from two chapters—"scary stories for Halloween," he said—one involving a druggie Dead-head zombie reanimated on the hotel's rooftop and another describing a seemingly personal encounter with the purported ghost of writer (and former Room 829 resident) Thomas Wolfe during the 2003 blackout:

"[A] large, hulking man," Mr. Hamilton described the phantom. "His broad back curved over a drafting table where an array of papers was spread out before him. He seemed to be working on some sort of outline... The man was wearing a starched white shirt, and the papers were white, which added to the brilliance of the scene."

Later, as the author autographed copies, this reporter asked him how much of the Wolfe ghost story was true.

"Well, it didn't happen during the blackout," Mr. Hamilton said. And, he added, "I don't know if it was him."

Barber to rock stars April Barton may be the first casualty in the Chelsea Hotel battle. Is her perch in Suite 303 worth $30,000 a month?  read more »

• Horrifyingly, the basement lounge at the Chelsea Hotel (where Leonard Cohen remembers you well) has been transformed into "an offbeat retreat." Designer Richardson Sadeki even had the gall to drop in some dead-Sex Pistols references. [Interior Design]
• After taking seven bad hits of L.S.D., Robert Scarano reimagines Stuy Town as a post-apocalyptic, post-Blade Runner wasteland [above]. [NY Post, via Curbed]
• Manhattan Prez Scott Stringer organized a city-wide preservation love-train. "It was great to have Uptown talking with Downtown," he said, "East Side talking with West Side and all of them talking with me." People all over the world, join hands. [Villager]
• Now that the Jitney has come to Brooklyn, The Great Jitney War of '07 is heating up! In a nutshell: West Side psychoanalysts are furious. [Sun] - Max Abelson
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