Four Seasons New York sets date to reopen 

More than four years after closing for the pandemic, the Four Seasons Hotel New York in Midtown Manhattan plans to reopen in three months.

Ty Warner Hotels and Resorts — a company owned by Beanie Babies founder Ty Warner — and the Four Seasons finalized an agreement to reopen the property at 57 East 57th Street in September, Travel and Tour World reported. Across the country, a separate agreement will allow the Biltmore Santa Barbara to come back online next spring.

An exact date for the Four Seasons reopening has not been revealed. The luxury hotel brand did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Real Deal.

It’s taken nearly a year to get to this point since a breakthrough in an ownership dispute regarding the two properties. The sides were reportedly nearing agreements to end the dispute last summer.

The issue appeared to center around construction costs and management fees. Even prior to the pandemic, Warner was reportedly balking at the sizable operating costs at the ritzy hotel. Four Seasons, however, wasn’t primed to adjust its management fees; the Four Seasons operates its hotels on behalf of owners.

The hotel has been closed since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, though doctors were allowed to stay at the property in the harrowing early days of the scourge. The hotel planned its reopening in the spring of 2022, but the dispute put the kibosh on that as the rest of Manhattan’s hospitality properties roared back to life.

The reclusive Warner purchased the property in 1999 for $275 million, seven years after it opened. The development of the 368-room property cost $475 million.

The sooner the hotel welcomes guests back, the sooner its investors can take advantage of New York’s revived hospitality industry. The sector has seen revenues surge nearly a year after the city’s Local Law 18 brought the short-term rental industry in the Big Apple to its knees. Competition for existing hotels has also been limited by a 2021 law requiring a special permit to build more.

— Holden Walter-Warner

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