A 1964 World’s Fair Hotel Reopened With 685 Rooms

Crowne Plaza has opened its new Americas flagship in Manhattan, a 685-key hotel a short walk from Times Square. The building is not new. The twenty-two-storey tower was originally constructed for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, spent recent years trading as The Manhattan at Times Square, and has now emerged from a multi-year overhaul as Crowne Plaza Manhattan Times Square. It is a reminder that in midtown, new hotels are usually old hotels with a different sign and a great deal of money spent behind the walls.

The property was developed by Al Rayyan Tourism Investment Company, the Qatari owner, and is managed by New York-based Highgate. IHG’s interest in it is less about one address than about what the address signals. A flagship is the reference property, the one a brand points at when it wants to argue that the guest experience has changed, and Crowne Plaza has spent several years working through an estate that had drifted toward tired. The group now says roughly half of its global Crowne Plaza portfolio is new or recently renovated.

Location is the straightforward part of the pitch. The hotel sits within walking distance of Times Square, Rockefeller Center, the Broadway theatre district and the southern end of Central Park, which covers most of what a first-time visitor to New York wants to reach on foot and a good share of what a business traveller needs. At 685 keys it is large enough to absorb group and convention business, which is the segment Crowne Plaza has traditionally chased and the one that fills midweek in this part of the city.

For guests the practical question with any reopening of this scale is whether the renovation reached the rooms or stopped at the lobby. Early reporting places it as a full property overhaul rather than a cosmetic refresh, but a hotel of this size takes months to settle, and service consistency in a brand-new team is the usual soft spot. If you are booking into midtown this autumn, it is worth watching rates here: a large new supply of rooms in a single building tends to soften pricing at nearby properties for a season.

Sources: Hotel Dive, IHG