Owner required additional permit to complete Plaza Hotel’s conversion plan. When El-Ad Properties bought the Plaza Hotel in October 2004, it proposed to convert the hotel’s 805 rooms into luxury residential condos and use the hotel’s banquet rooms, meeting spaces and existing retail as high-end retail destinations. Public opposition to the plan resulted in a compromise by which El-Ad agreed to maintain 284 hotel rooms and convert the remaining 511 rooms into 181 private condos. During the process, Landmarks designated several of the Plaza’s interior spaces, including the Oak Bar, the Oak Room, the Palm Court, the Terrace and the Edwardian Rooms. 2 CityLand 105 (Aug. 15, 2005).

Because the reduced number of hotel rooms no longer justified accessory retail space, the proposed retail required a special permit. The Plaza sits on a split-zone lot predominately within an R10-H zone, a residential zone that only permits residential use as of right. Only one quarter of the site is zoned for commercial retail uses. The Palm Court, the Oak Room and other commercial space within the Plaza Hotel had been considered accessory to the hotel. (more…)