The Four Seasons hotel is scheduled to reopen this coming Fall after closing back in 2020, as the property owner and hotel’s management company came to a resolution after a four year long battle over profitability and fees.
Beanie Babies inventor and owner Ty Warner and the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts brand have reportedly agreed to sell 50 of the 368 rooms as residential apartments to offset the fees involved in the upkeep of the property.
The Four Seasons location in Midtown Manhattan shut down during the pandemic, but never reopened, as Warner was not content with the hotel losing money and wished to change the fee structure set up by the management company to instead tie fees to profitability.
Matters were further complicated when employees who were laid off during the pandemic sued Warner and the brand. They argued that they were delaying the opening so they didn’t have to pay workers wages and severance.
Last year, the union was fighting for their workers to be hired back if the hotel reopened.
Warner asserted that a deal with the union was the only thing keeping the hotel from opening its doors again.
“At this point, only an agreement with the union is still required to open Four Seasons New York, which I’m optimistic will be coming soon,” Warner told the Post last summer.
However, Warner was also reportedly waiting for a deal to convert some of the suites into apartments, as the selling some of the units would help alleviate some of the costs of maintaining the property and business.
Warner purchased the property in 1999 for $275 million, seven years after it opened. The development of the 368-room property cost $475 million.
In addition to the New York location’s reopening, a separate agreement will allow the Biltmore Santa Barbara to come back online next Spring.
The Four Seasons hotel is set to reopen in September, but it’s unclear which rooms will be up for sale and which will be suites for guests.
