More Bad News for The Plaza as Bakery Moves Out

February 22, 2010 at 8:50 AM | by juliana | Comments (2)

Retail space at The Plaza circa April 2009.

It's no secret that The Plaza has had a rough go of things outside its fancy hotel rooms, particularly in obtaining a thriving retail space in its basement mall. Yes, there is an Eloise Shop and Chef Todd English is planning on opening a "food hall" later this year but for the most part retail success has eluded the legendary hotel.

Now, the leading retail tenant, The Demel Bakery, is leaving the hotel and suing the developer for fraud. The NY Post has the scoop:

The sole eatery in the 160,000-square-foot shopping area, the Demel could desert The Plaza within the next few weeks, sources said, breaking the 10-year lease it inked with the hotel in February 2008. Other retailers are grumbling that they'll follow suit.

The bakery accuses the hotel's developer, Elad Properties, of using "bait-and-switch" tactics to lure Demel to its grand concourse -- claiming it would be neighbors to luxury retailers like Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Louis Vuitton and Gucci, according to a scathing lawsuit filed last week in Manhattan Supreme Court.

But instead of being shacked up next to high end shops, the bakery claims the space was "populated with unknown retailers" and vacant space. There is however a little bit of a glitch. The bakery stopped playing rent to the hotel a year ago and a lawyer for The Plaza's developers, Elad Properties, say the bakery just doesn't want to pay its rent.

This will obviously play out in court but there's no denying The Plaza has some bad karma. The NY Post tallied up all the losses noting that The Palm Court closed in January 2009 (it will reopen this spring), the Oak Room stopped serving lunch and is only open for dinner, The Edwardian Room remains closed, the luxury shirtmaker Eton of Sweden closed shop in September and the lingerie brand Marlies Dekker closed in 2008.

Update: The Oak Room has different owners from The Plaza. And good news here, the Oak Room is open for lunch. Check out the menu online here.

That's an awful lot of turnover for a hotel that promised to be better than it ever was before. What's more of a shame is that these retail dramas are taking away from the hotel experience, which we thought was quite excellent. It's not the Plaza of old (and it never will be) but the rooms and service were top-notch. Hopefully, Elad will get their act together and do what they can to provide a hospitable environment for retailers, shoppers and guests alike.

Comments (2)

Return to » More Bad News for The Plaza as Bakery Moves Out

Demel was the only thing down there doing any business. Last time I was there (the week of Christmas), it was still echo-chamber empty except for Demel. Now hotel guests and tourists won't have a reason to go down there. It'll suffer the no-one-wants-to-go-into-an-empty-store effect.

We were last year in Malta and met some people from the US who told us about the Plaze in NY. They said to us - das Plaza in Malta ist definitiv besser. Besonders durch die ganzen lastminute malta reisen touristen die jedes jahr nach malta und gozo kommen ist es mittlerweile kein problem mehr dort gute Malta hotels zu finden.

They also said that the Plaza in NY is currently doing a lot of things to improve its service. Lets see how it turns out.

HotelChatter

Select a Destination:

Hotel Woes / Fairmont Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags