Just in Time for the Glut, Waldorf Condos to Go on Sale

The Chinese owner of the iconic Waldorf-Astoria hotel, Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group, will begin selling 375 luxury condo apartments in the Park Avenue landmark this fall, the Wall Street Journal reports. The new condos will be called the Towers of the Waldorf-Astoria. 

Arriving in the midst of a slowdown in the luxury condo market, the updated residences will offer “an unprecedented variety of layouts and sizes” along with exclusive private amenities that occupy an entire city block, in addition to services from the Waldorf-Astoria New York hotel. With completion planned for 2021, the hotel, operated by Hilton, will have 350 newly built rooms and suites and renovated public and event spaces. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is the project’s architect, with hotel interiors designed by Pierre Yves Rochon. AECOM Tishman is managing the project’s construction and preservation efforts. Douglas Elliman Development Market will be handling sales of the new condos, with global real estate agency Knight Frank as its international sales partner. 

The Waldorf-Astoria closed in 2017 ahead of the massive renovation project. After the plans were announced, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the hotel’s first three floors as an interior landmark, meaning that the 1931 Art Deco spaces will have to be preserved, as reported by 6sqft. 

Anbang acquired the hotel in 2014, and the fate of the Park Avenue icon became even more of a topic of discussion after the takeover of the company by the Chinese government and the incarceration of the company’s chairman, Wu Xiaohui, in 2017 during a fraud investigation. The hotel’s interior artifacts were carted off last spring by architectural salvage company Olde Good Things and put up for sale. 

Andrew Miller, executive director of development at Anbang, said in a statement, “This will be a rare opportunity to own a home at one of the most special addresses in the world.”