The Four Seasons Hotel in New York said it is finally set to reopen in September — ending an epic, four-year battle between its owner, the reclusive billionaire Beanie Babies tycoon Ty Warner, and the luxury hotel company that has operated it since 1993.
The iconic property on East 57th Street – once known as the most expensive hotel in New York City – has been closed since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
The 383-room hotel has been undergoing renovations for the past few years, according to its website, but there is little evidence that substantial work has been going on, according to sources close to the property.
It remained closed long after the Big Apple reopened as the Toronoto-based hotel management company and Ty Warner Hotels & Resorts remained locked in fierce negotiations and protracted arbitration proceedings over fees and operating costs, sources told The Post.
A tentative agreement was reached last year, but fell apart. The powerful hotel union — the New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council — was part of the complicated web of talks, as The Post reported exclusively.
“At this point, only an agreement with the union is still required to open Four Seasons New York, which I’m optimistic will be coming soon,” Warner, the reclusive founder of Beanie Babies, told The Post in an interview last August.
Warner and Four Seasons “completed agreements” with plans to reopen the property in September 2024, Four Seasons announced without fanfare last week.
The hotel’s web site simply states that it will reopen in the fall of 2024.
A sister property operated by Four Seasons and owned by Warner – the Biltmore Santa Barbara – had also been closed since the pandemic. The agreement calls for that hotel to reopen in the Spring of 2025, according to the four-sentence press release.
