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Chelsea Hotel's New Management Revealed!

Where: 222 W 23rd Street [map], New York, ny, United States, 10011

The NY Post has the scoop today on the new management for the legendary The Chelsea Hotel. The Post reports that Richard Born and Ira Drukier, "of Mercer Hotel fame," will be doing some revamping of the bohemian outpost. Now, when we think of the Mercer Hotel we think of Andre Balazs but Born and Drukier were his silent partners in the hotel.

Born and Drukier (B&D) are the guys behind a lot of Manhattan hotels, notably the still-unopened Downtown Hotel by DeNiro and the Chambers Hotel. These developer/hoteliers were even featured in NY Mag a few years back just as that hotel was about to open. The piece talks a bit of a struggle with Balazs over credit for the Mercer. Also, interesting to note: Schrager loves these guys.

The NY Times also profiled this hotelier team in 2004, calling their business style "freewheeling" that included some major misses. For example, they bought a piece of land south of the Maritime Hotel on 13th and Ninth. But after 9/11, they decided not to construct on it and sold it off. The buyers, William Achenbaum and his son, then built the Hotel Gansevoort there.

But the important question is what does this mean for the Chelsea Hotel? It's still too soon to tell but B & D will have to put up with a lot of angry long-term guests, something they have probably never encountered before. And the Post hints that Stanley Bard might not be completely out of the picture. Let the soap opera begin....

[Photo compiled from: New York Social Diary]

Related Stories:
· Ch-Ch-Changes at the Chelsea Hotel [HotelChatter]
· Changing Times at the Chelsea [NYPost]