Here comes THE Waldorf Astoria

NEW YORK CITY – In Spring 2025, the phrase “meet me at the clock” will have true meaning once again as the Waldorf Astoria New York reopens after more than seven years of ownership tumult and extensive and expensive renovations. In fact, just this week, the famed and now refurbished lobby clock was reinstalled in the very same spot loyal guests know.

Hilton signed a 100-year contract in 2014 to manage one of Manhattan’s most storied hotels just before China’s Anbang Insurance bought it for $1.95 billion. In 2017, Anbang closed the hotel to reconfigure the condos and hotel rooms, which at the reopening will stand at 375 spaces for each. By 2018, Anbang was seized by the Chinese government for improprieties and created another holding company, Dajai Insurance, to take stewardship of the Waldorf. By 2022, reports surfaced that the $1 billion price tag to restore the grande dame had ballooned extensively.

But Hilton and the owners are about to put those headlines behind them with the recent news that reservations are open.

Rendering of downstairs at Lex Yard

Highlights of the transformed property will include:

• 375 luxury rooms and suites, some of the largest in Manhattan starting at 570 sq. ft., with interiors designed by Pierre-Yves Rochon
• 375 residences, ranging from studios to four bedrooms, with interiors designed by Jean-Louis Deniot.
• Dining, including signature restaurant Lex Yard by former Grammercy Tavern Chef Michael Anthony, and the return of Peacock Alley (there’s also a surprise coming for the Park Avenue terraces)
• 43,000 square feet of reimagined event space, including the restored Grand Ballroom and Jade Room
• A 30,000 sq. ft. spa and fitness center with an outdoor terrace (operator to be named by Spring) 

Hilton would not offer any projections for ADR and occupancy, nor would they comment on how residences are selling other than to say the owners are happy with the pace.

Yes, it has been a long, arduous road back, but this opening is highly anticipated and very important to not only to the halo of the Waldorf brand but to the halo of Hilton Worldwide. Since closing Waldorf Astoria New York for renovation in 2017, the Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts portfolio has doubled in size to now 34 properties in 18 countries with a pipeline of nearly 30 properties set to open in the coming years.

“The reopening means so much on so many levels,” Dino Michael, senior vice president and global head, Hilton Luxury Brands, told Hotel Investment Today. “It means a lot to our CEO Chris Nassetta who said this is something that’s really important to him. For us as a brand, to have the hotel reopen after a restoration is amazing. There’s something poetic about it coming back to take its place amidst this wonderful collection of amazing properties that have grown during its absence.”

Michael said it is also a very poignant moment. “Everybody I talk to has a story about the hotel and everybody says, ‘don’t mess it up.’ So, I take that obligation quite seriously to give it back to New York.”

Doing the right thing

So, how do you bring back an asset closed for more than seven years – long enough to almost be forgotten?

Michael said the property is too transcendent to be overlooked.

Dino Michael, Hilton Luxury Brands

“The amount of passion and emotion for this hotel surprised me – maybe because I’m a Brit,” Michael said. “But the number of guests, owners, developers and everybody else have such a positive, emotional pull to the hotel. They are so curious, wanting to get in there to see it… They all have stories about the hotel, and they inspire us to do the right thing.”

Michael waxed about how the team would peel back wallpaper to find beautiful marble column and detailing hidden under decades of paint.

“You start to see the emblems and the motifs and the detail… You think about Peacock Alley and then you start to see these peacock references all around the building,” he said. “You see the meticulous nature of the detail and you understand why it took so long.”

Yes, the clock in the lobby has been fully restored and it was just returned to its original space, which throughout the renovation has been used as an artisan studio where craftsmen restore and hand-create moldings, cornices and the like.

The front desk has been completely reimagined. It’s smaller and more elegant, according to Michael, and for the first time, daylight now comes into the lobby from that side of the building.

“We’ve gone from what was 1,400-plus rooms – a behemoth of a grand hotel – down to 375 rooms with another 375 private residences. So, we’ve gone back to the concrete, reconfigured, reengineered and put all the efficiencies back in… We’ve created two new curb cuts on the side street for residences and guests. You might remember you have two minutes until someone was honking at you to get out of the way while you rush to get your bags in on Park Avenue. Now we have a much more elegant arrival.”

Hilton and the developers have also partnered with the Landmark Association of New York, which Michael said most people would see as something scary. “For us, it was a real privilege to have such expertise working with us to make sure that we were doing the right thing. We are preserving it.”

Again, he talked about peeling back certain elements of the hotel and finding colorings that they didn’t know were there. For example, there were beautiful columns of jade covered up by huge curtains.

“You pull that down and you let the building reveal itself. So, it feels sharp, it feels cleaner,” Michael said. “We really thought about how the space feels when guests enter and didn’t want to lose that sense of majesty. The moment you walk in, look up, take a slight inhale. We didn’t want to lose that.”

The tone and look of the hotel will remain Art Deco, according to Michael, but reimagined with a balance of contemporary to modernize the property.

Rendering from a junior suite

“For me, the reimagining of Peacock Alley was probably the most emotional,” Michael continued. “We wanted to preserve the space and its intent. If you remember, Peacock Alley got its name because that was where the ladies of the day would walk through and showcase the latest fashions… I’ve joked, it is the original catwalk. You’re a little bit on show, you’re coming through, and you feel like you’ve arrived. And that’s something that was really special for us – not to lose that grandeur and that feeling of elegance.”

Michael cited a real trend and desire for nostalgia, which he said will help the hotel rise again. “People are really harking back to certain age of glamor. We want to dress up and feel great. We want to feel like we’re going out. We want to feel special. I believe the Waldorf really delivers on that. It’ll take you back to an age where it meant something to dress up, to be out, to walk through somewhere that special, and feel as though you arrived.”

Planning the comeback

Among the challenges during the renovation, Michael said, was making sure they got the right balance of residential and hotel. “New York’s amazing in that you have a very strong domestic meetings market, along with events and galas. So, getting that right and making sure we’d fully modernize the building without losing its integrity and history was important... For example, we have a fully equipped Grand Ballroom, but it hasn’t lost that nostalgic appeal.”

The other challenge will be bringing back guests after such a long time. But Michael called that the easiest job in the world considering the property’s history.

“Our sales and marketing team really understand how to bring the power of the history to life, whether it’s Marilyn [Monroe] or Queen Elizabeth or the countless ambassadors and world leaders we’ve had at the hotel. So, the storytelling is important. Secondly, this real draw right now for nostalgia is really strong, and nothing is as nostalgic as this. You walk in and the mosaics, the majesty, the renovated clock, the ballroom, and all that is grandeur – and we can back that all up with a modern sensibility, a modern service style, and all the technology you’d need.”

Michael said a soft opening sometime during the Spring will serve to pressure test the new operation and a big grand opening should happen by Fall.

“The proof is in the pudding,” Michael concluded. “Once we open and owners and investors come in, that will speak for itself. I go there all the time and you just can’t articulate the work that’s gone into it. Every time I go on site, I see something different, and I get excited all over again.”