The Hyatt Grand Central New York is a hotel located at 109 East 42nd Street, adjoining Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It operated as the 2,000-room Commodore Hotel between 1919 and 1976, before hotel chain Hyatt and real estate developer Donald Trump converted the hotel to the 1,400-room Grand Hyatt New York between 1978 and 1980. , the hotel is planned to be replaced with a skyscraper named Project Commodore after 2023.
The New York Central Railroad had acquired the site in 1910 and started constructing the hotel in October 1916. The Commodore was designed by Warren & Wetmore, with the Fuller Company as the hotel's general contractor. The hotel was , with up to 28 stories, and had an "H"-shaped floor plan and a brick-and-terracotta facade. It contained a large lobby designed in a manner resembling an Italian courtyard, as well as various dining rooms and ballrooms. The Commodore opened on January 28, 1919, and was originally operated by Bowman-Biltmore Hotels. Zeckendorf Hotels took over the Commodore's operation in 1958 before handing it to New York Central subsidiary Realty Hotels in 1966. Due to declining profits, the Commodore closed on May 18, 1976.
Trump and Hyatt offered in 1975 to take over the Commodore and renovate it into the Grand Hyatt. After the city government granted a tax abatement for the renovation, Trump and Hyatt completely remodeled the hotel from June 1978 to September 1980, spending $100 million and removing almost all of the Commodore's original decorations. The renovated hotel includes a glass facade, a three-story atrium, a restaurant cantilevered over a sidewalk, and the Commodore's original ballroom. With the deteriorating partnership between Trump and Hyatt, the Pritzker family, which operated the Grand Hyatt, acquired Trump's stake in the hotel in 1996. The Project Commodore skyscraper was announced for the site in 2019, and the Grand Hyatt temporarily closed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. The hotel reopened in 2021 as the Hyatt Grand Central, although the hotel is scheduled to close permanently after 2023.
Site
The Hyatt Grand Central New York is at 109 East 42nd Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It occupies a rectangular site on the northwestern corner of Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street, near Pershing Square Plaza, and abuts the Park Avenue Viaduct to the west. The land lot covers about , with a frontage of on Lexington Avenue and on 42nd Street.
The hotel shares the city block with Grand Central Terminal to the west, the MetLife Building to the northwest, and the Graybar Building and 450 Lexington Avenue to the north. Other nearby buildings include the Pershing Square Building and Bowery Savings Bank Building to the southwest, the Chanin Building to the south, the Socony–Mobil Building to the southeast, and the Chrysler Building to the east. The New York City Subway's Grand Central–42nd Street station, serving the , is located directly underneath the Hyatt Grand Central, and the Lexington Avenue Line platforms cut diagonally underneath the hotel.A subway entrance, with a stair and an elevator, is at the base of the hotel on Lexington Avenue.
The site was formerly occupied by the Hospital for Crippled Children. Before the hotel opened, the site occupied an entire city block, which was bounded by Depew Place to the west and 43rd Street to the north. The New York Central Railroad acquired the site in November 1910 as part of the construction of Grand Central Terminal.
Architecture
The Hyatt Grand Central New York was originally known as the Commodore and was designed by Warren & Wetmore. The Fuller Company was the hotel's general contractor, although the project also involved numerous other contractors and engineers. Donald Trump and Hyatt renovated the hotel in the 1970s to designs by Gruzen & Partners and Der Scutt.