MORSE Development, which developed the experiential TWA Hotel at New York City’s JFK Airport, will bring back the magic and glamour of the five-star hotel, which has been closed since 2020. An extensive renovation will revitalize the lobby, the first-floor restaurants and bars, and the hotel’s 197 guestrooms and suites. The spectacular 7,000-square-foot rooftop bar — the only venue with a view of the exclusive Gramercy Park — will also receive a full restoration.
“We will return this beloved hotel to its original splendor as the jewel of Gramercy Park — one of the most magical and unique neighbourhoods in Manhattan,” says Tyler Morse, Chairman and CEO of MCR/MORSE Development.
Built in 1924 on the site where Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Edith Wharton was born, the 18-story luxury hotel has a rich history as a haunt for athletes (Babe Ruth frequented the bar), politicians (a young John F. Kennedy Jr. stayed there with his father) and screen legends (Humphrey Bogart married stage actress Helen Menken there in 1926). But it was a true favorite of rock stars. The Clash, U2, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones all booked rooms during their tours. Blondie’s Debbie Harry lived in room 501. Madonna, who worked as a hat-check girl at the nearby club Danceteria, partied afterhours at the hotel. And when David Bowie checked in for two weeks in 1973 at the height of his The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars fame, the hotel was nicknamed “The Glamercy.” As Rolling Stone put it in 2018, “it was probably one of the only places you could call up room service to order a pick or a guitar string.”