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New York’s Four Seasons hotel, closed for more than three years due to an epic conflict between its billionaire owner and the company that owns the luxury brand, faces one final hurdle before reopening its luxury doors. I found out that
The union says the famous East 57th Street hotel is still in contract negotiations with the influential New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council over the fate of laid-off employees after announcing it would reopen next year. He says he hasn’t.
“Although there have been no formal negotiations between hotels and unions, there is no reason to believe that the issues related to reopening cannot or will not be resolved,” said Trades Council spokesperson Austin Shafran. he told the Post.
Ty Werner, owner of the iconic IM Pei-designed Manhattan store, filed suit in Santa Barbara, Calif., in March 2020 in a dispute over fees and profit margins with a Toronto-based hotel. Lights were also turned off at another building that houses the Four Seasons. Hotel company.
However, the two opposing factions appear to have resolved the issue last month and announced that they have been working together to prepare for the long-awaited reopening of both facilities next fall.
“Right now, the only thing we need to do to open Four Seasons New York is an agreement with the unions, but we’re optimistic that it will open soon,” Beanie Babies’ reclusive founder Warner recently told The Post in an exclusive interview. told.
It may not be as simple as turning back the lights on the once-swanky 52-story hotel after Four Seasons fired some 350 unionized employees over a dispute with Warner Bros. unknown.
As The Post previously reported, about 100 sideline workers will receive lump sum severance payments worth $10 million in a deal negotiated in 2021 as coronavirus lockdowns ravaged the hotel industry. received.
However, Shafran said some of the remaining former employees have found jobs at other hotels and may want to return to their previous salaries and will initially be removed from their jobs. It’s called deaf.
“Current hotel staff on furlough will have the full and unequivocal right to assume their previous positions once the hotel reopens. It is a contractually guaranteed right,” the representative said.
He added that whatever “issues” the union believes need to be “resolved” before hotels can reopen “remain private.”
Four Seasons is also actively hiring for its New York properties, including a search for a finance director, according to its LinkedIn page.
Labor costs have been a point of contention between Four Seasons and Warner for years, with Warner arguing that the property was not making enough profits because of labor costs, industry experts told the Post.
The 383-room hotel, which opened 28 years ago and charged an astronomical $400 a night at the time, will face new competition in the luxury hotel market when it reopens next fall.
The most upscale newcomer is Aman New York, just down the street on East 57th Street. Room rates for the 83 suites start at an amazing $3,000 per night.
“The Aman is the most expensive hotel in the city and is establishing a new threshold,” Sean Hennessy, a professor at New York University’s Jonathan M. Tisch Center for Hospitality, told the Post. “Four Seasons will have to catch up with Aman.”
The Four Seasons has been undergoing renovations in recent years, but it’s unclear what upgrades await guests when the hotel reopens.
“Rooms, restaurants and public areas will be renovated,” Warner said, without providing additional details.
“No one is going to build a 383-room luxury hotel anymore,” the industry insider added. “The luxury market has evolved over the past 30 years.”
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