AECOM Tishman signed a new deal with Anbang Insurance Group to start construction work at the Waldorf Astoria, which is now scheduled to reopen in 2021.
Tishman has been on the job since November 2017 doing mostly interior demolition work. But the contractor signed a new deal to start building the project’s planned 350 condominiums and 350 new hotel rooms, the New York Post reported.
“Some executives flew in from Beijing last week to finalize the contract with Tishman and to celebrate,” an insider told the newspaper.
The conversion had originally been planned for completion in 2020, but Anbang and Tishman are now targeting completion in 2021.
Anbang and hotel operator Hilton boasted that the Waldorf’s new hotel rooms — at a minimum of 650 square feet — will be much bigger than the Manhattan average of 325 square feet.
The 350 rooms, though, will be far fewer than the 1,413 rooms the hotel had before shutting down.
Condos will average 1,747 square feet, as The Real Deal reported in April.
One question that remains unanswered is how long Anbang will hold onto the hotel portion of the building. The Chinese government earlier this year took over the company, and Anbang is reportedly looking to sell its U.S. luxury hotel portfolio — including the Essex house on Central Park South —for $5.5 billion.
The Waldorf is not included in the portfolio up for sale. [NYP] – Rich Bockmann