HotelChatter

A few weeks ago Curbed reported on the uprisings of the residents, which we were already clued into thanks to the onslaught of comments under this story. Since we know what the residents are thinking, we wanted to hear from the hotel how they plan to get hotel guests and residents to peacefully coexist.

Here's what a hotel rep wrote to us:

I wanted to follow regarding recent tenant complaints posted on Curbed and various hotel blogs regarding Ace Hotel New York, GFI (owner/developer) wishes to clarify the current living situation with tenants of the building. GFI has been very careful to make sure that conditions in the building are safe and as comfortable for tenants as possible in the context of a major renovation and upgrade to the property.

GFI has worked very closely with the Tenant Association in the building to address any tenant concerns and most of the tenants in the building are very excited to see the major improvements to the building which they will enjoy.

There are a small handful of tenants in the building that are spreading false information in order to attempt to get large buyout payments. These tenants have expressly asserted their plan to spread false information in order to harm ownership.

The facts are that all tenants have been provided with temporary heat while the decades old boiler was replaced with a state of the art HVAC system which will serve the tenants. The facts are that tenants have been advised to only use elevators due to debris in stairwells caused by renovations and exterminators visit the property weekly to ensure that the public spaces and hotel rooms remain pest-free.

The facts are that over a third of the apartments in the building turned over every year for decades because the population of the building was dominated by young students. Those students in residence when the conversion to hotel became a reality were thrilled to accept large payments in exchange for their agreements to leave the building which nearly all planned to do in any event within a few years.

The facts are that the tenants that chose to remain in the building all will receive in addition to a state of the art new heating system, brand new sound proof windows and will the benefit of beautiful new hallways and a great new lobby.

Once the property opens Ace Hotel New York looks forward to offering a communal place for hotel guests and residents alike.

Surely they're not referring to the lobby when they mention this "communal place," right? Because didn't Curbed just learn that hotel guests and tenants have very different, very separate lobbies? Hmmm...