Blakely Hotel may shut down, lay off 54 workers

Midtown hotel is owned by Richard Born and Ira Drukier of BD Hotels

The Blakely Hotel at 136 West 55th Street and Richard Born (Credit: Google Maps, Richard Born by Studio Scrivo)
The Blakely Hotel at 136 West 55th Street and Richard Born (Credit: Google Maps, Richard Born by Studio Scrivo)

Richard Born’s Blakely Hotel could shut down and lay off 54 employees this spring, according to a notice filed with the New York State Department of Labor.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, dated Jan. 15, said the hotel could start laying off employees as of April 16 and cited “plant closing” as the reason.

The property is located at 136 West 55th Street and initially opened in 1929 as the Gorham Hotel. A group of investors led by Richard Born and Ira Drukier then purchased it in 2003 for $14.6 million and began an extensive renovation effort, rebranding it as the Blakely.

Fred Hartman, general manager of the Blakely Hotel, is listed as the point of contact on the WARN filing. He said he did not know anything about the potential layoffs or closure.

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The New York Hotel & Motel Trades Council declined to comment on the matter. Born did not respond to a request for comment.

The hotel is 17 stories tall with 118 rooms and is located just a few blocks south of Central Park.

Born and Drukier, under the company BD Hotels, have stakes in several New York City hotels including the Bowery, the Greenwich and the Maritime.