The Waldorf Astoria New York has been an official landmark site since 1993, and over the years it's continued to make headlines, especially of late as it undergoes a significant renovation.
However, the iconic property has been undergoing more than just a physical transformation. With shakeups in ownership and delays to the reopening date, it’s been a bumpy road towards completion.
Here’s a comprehensive timeline dating back to its beginnings since 1893.
March 1893 – William Waldorf Astor opens the 13-story, 450-room Waldorf Hotel on the same site of his former mansion that stood at Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street in Manhattan.
1897 – Astor’s cousin John Jacob Astor IV opens the Astoria Hotel adjacent to the Waldorf. The two cousins combined operations and formed the Waldorf Astoria.
1929 – The original Waldorf Astoria New York Hotel closes and is demolished to make way for another iconic site, the Empire State Building. The hotel is reincarnated 15 blocks north on Park Avenue.
1 October 1931 – The new 47-story Waldorf Astoria New York hotel opens on Park Avenue, designed by architects Leonard Schultze and S. Fullerton Weaver. The hotel features Art Deco art and architecture.
1949 – Hilton acquires the property and management contract for $3 million from New York State Realty & Terminal Company.
1977 – Hilton purchases the property’s land, which was owned by New York Central Railroad.
1993 – The hotel is granted landmark status.
October 2014 – China’s Anbang Insurance Group purchases the Waldorf Astoria New York from Hilton for $1.95 billion, or about $1.4 million per room, making it the most expensive purchase of a U.S. real estate asset by a Chinese buyer in history.
June 2016 – The new owner announces it has plans to do an extensive overhaul of the hotel and will close it down for as many as three years, eliminating hundreds of jobs.
August 2016 – Waldorf Astoria New York’s final check out date is announced as March 1, 2017.
November 2016 – Anbang files plans with New York’s Department of Buildings to refurbish the hotel. The permit application states Anbang plans to convert 500 guestrooms into 321 luxury apartment/condo units. Floors 14 and up will be residential while floors five through 13 will remain hotel rooms.
March 1, 2017 – Waldorf Astoria New York shuts down operations March 1.
March 7, 2017 – One week after the hotel closes down for its extensive renovation, the New York City Landmark’s Preservation Commission unanimously votes to protect several interior spaces in the hotel by landmarking them, including interconnected rooms and corridors on the ground, first and second floors. Its exterior was already landmarked in 1993.
March 29, 2017 – Renderings for the project are released by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the architecture firm overseeing every aspect of the building’s transformation.*
Feb. 23, 2018 – Anbang is seized by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, citing the need prevent the firm from collapsing following suspected illegal activity from Anbang leader Wu Xiaohui, who was detained in June. The insurance regulatory agency said in a statement, “all transactions of (Anbang) asset trading, information dissemination, contract signing other than traditional insurance business are subject to the consent of the working group.” Fortune reports the takeover will be for “at least a year.”
The governmental seizure of Anbang comes at a time when officials are cracking down on companies investing outside China.
Aug. 21, 2018 – After months of silence, Anbang announces it has moved into its second phase of construction on the property, with global infrastructure firm AECOM Tishman overseeing construction. AECOM Tishman was involved with the project since November 2017 for the building’s initial interior demolition and pre-construction phase. The reopening date has been delayed to 2021, a year later than the original date.
June 21, 2019 – Reports emerge indicating Anbang is looking to unload a portfolio of luxury hotels that it acquired for about $5.5 billion in 2016 from Blackstone Group and were once owned by defunct REIT Strategic Hotels & Resorts. Several investment groups are bidding, with amounts ranging from $5.5 billion to $5.8 billion. The Waldorf Astoria New York is not part of that portfolio. Hotels included in the portfolio are the Essex House in Manhattan; the Four Seasons Hotel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and the Fairmont in Chicago.
June 25, 2019 – China forms Dajia Insurance Group to take stakes in Anbang’s life- and pension-insurance units in addition to its asset-management business.
July 2019 – Anbang announces the new hotel/condo conversion, comprising 375 condos and 350 renovated hotel rooms, will be marketed in the fall with Douglas Elliman Development Marketing and with Knight Frank in charge of international sales. The condo portion of the project is also given a new name, the Towers of the Waldorf Astoria. Though the listing is expected to come at a challenging time when there is an influx of high-priced apartments in the city, Elliman executives are confident the property will attract buyers.
Sept. 10, 2019 – Anbang and South Korean Mirae Asset Management Co. announce a $5.8 billion deal for the former Strategic Hotels & Resorts portfolio.
Nov. 13, 2019 – The original market date of fall 2019 has been delayed to early 2020.
*Clarification 23 December 2019: This article has been updated to clarify the role of the architecture firm overseeing renovations.