New chapter for iconic hotel

The Hotel Chelsea, a Manhattan landmark where Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol once lived, has been put up for sale by the families that owned and operated it for more than 65 years...

The 12-storey property has 125 hotel rooms, including a two-bedroom, two-bathroom suite where movie star Marilyn Monroe lived with playwright Arthur Miller.

Writer Dylan Thomas died in the hotel of alcohol poisoning in 1953, and the Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious allegedly stabbed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen to death there in 1978.

There are also 101 residential units, which house tenants who have lived in the building for decades and some who pay rent with their original artwork.

''It is time to let a new owner, with perhaps some new innovative ideas and resources, to re-energise and revitalise the Chelsea,'' Paul Brounstein, a shareholder and board member, said.

''The name and history surely will add to the valuation of the place,'' said Patrick Scholes, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets in New York. ''The price will be based on how much income this hotel can make. Will people be willing to spend a few more dollars to stay in a room Marilyn Monroe or Andy Warhol slept in? Sure.''

The hotel, on West 23rd Street in the Chelsea neighbourhood, was New York's tallest building when it was built in 1883. It has 1580 square metres of retail space and a 740-square-metre roof terrace that overlooks the East and Hudson rivers.

The building, converted into a hotel in 1905, attracted artists and writers throughout the 20th century. Famous guests and long-term residents included writer Thomas Wolfe, poet Allen Ginsberg and musicians Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison.

''Whoever is going to buy it will likely keep the uniqueness of this hotel,'' Mr Scholes said. ''It's an iconic property.''

Source: Bloomberg