Montclair Hotel
541 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY
Emery Roth designed the Hotel Montclair, at the northeast corner of 49th, in 1928. This is now the W Hotel, remodeled in 2008, with a startling lobby designed by BBG-BBGM.
Currently the "W" New York - Starwood's first W Hotel. The W brand was launched in 1998 with the W New York, a multi-million dollar conversion of the old Doral Inn Hotel at 541 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.
The Doral Inn was the former Hotel Belmont Plaza (home of the Glass Hat Club which was an early venue for Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin) and opened as the Hotel Montclair.
On November 1, 1928, S. Gregory Taylor opened the Montclair, between 49th and 50th streets on Lexington Avenue. It was designed by Emory Roth with a façade in Spanish style and built by the Harper organization. Taylor was president, Oscar W. Richardson, resident manager and Gaston Lauryssen, associate manager. Harris H. and Percy Uris were also the developers, and the mortgage was for $2,500,000.
According to Time Magazine in 1936 the Montclair was offered for sale and Ralph Hitz, president of National Hotel Management Co., Inc. and a group of investors bought it for $3,000,000. Prior to this purchase National Hotel Management was a management company and not an owner - the hotels managed by NHM at that time were New Yorker (New York City), Lexington (New York City), Book-Cadillac (Detroit), Nicollet (Minneapolis), The Netherland Plaza (Cincinnati), Van Cleve (Dayton), Adolphus (Dallas), and Congress (Chicago). Because the Lexington was just 2 blocks away NHM lost that management agreement. To compete with the Lexington Hitz put up a new marquee promoting the new name - Belmont Plaza. He also spent $200,000 on a new night club called The Glass Hat.
SOURCES:https://www.flickr.com/photos/dickjohnson/5961083289/l - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/realestate/20scape.html?_r=0