Aman to Open Budget Hotel in New York

Aman Resorts are branching out into one of the toughest hotel markets in the world, going from horizontal paradises to vertical luxury oasis — you can’t really do anything but go into the sky in New York.

Scheduled to open in 2020, the Aman New York will be 26 stories high. The group purchased the Crown Building in midtown Manhattan, on the corner of 57th and 5th,, one of the great metropolitan addresses in the world. Well, the 4th floor to the 26th floor to be precise: this project is a condo and hotel conversion.

The Aman, which of course will be ultra luxurious in the vein of their other insanely luxurious resorts around the world, is in rarified-air company. The famous Plaza, now also a hybrid of hotel and apartments, is visible just a block up the avenue, Trump Tower is across the street (not an asset, and we’re not being political — the security, protests and road closures around the President’s NY home are disruptive). And the view from the top floors, looking over famed department store Bergdorf Goodman, is of Central Park. What more could you want?

Inside the neoclassical Beaux-Arts building at 730 Fifth Avenue, the New York Aman will comprise 83 hotel suites, 19 ultra luxury condos, and the crown jewel, a five-storey penthouse with a wraparound terrace and an indoor and outdoor pool for sale. This will set you back a mere $100,000,000 plus. The condos, depending on square footage, number of bedrooms etc will run $5,900,000 to almost ten times that, $58,300,000. (Prices for the hotel suites per night have not been announced.)

The hotel suites will all be over 750 square feet–which in New York City is like an eight family residence–each with a fireplace.  The condos will vary from one, three or four bedrooms with one, two, or five bathrooms, and dens and offices. The penthouse is going to be 14,000 square feet. How many bedrooms or bathrooms has not been disclosed, just the number of swimming pools and the one terrace.  

Other planned amenities are an enormous spa with an 80 foot indoor pool surrounded by fire pits and lounging areas, now that sounds very civilised, or ludicrously dangerous. On the tenth floor there will be a Garden Terrace, which will be open to non-hotel guests and condo owners, (yes you and me, the unwashed public) as will the bar, a cigar bar, a Sky Lobby with piano bar, a subterranean jazz bar, and last but not least, because after all that drinking you’ll want to eat, two restaurants.

Vladislav Doronin, chairman and CEO of Aman Resorts, said in an interview, and I don’t think he meant it to sound as faintly ominous as it might: “This is a unique product, the historic structure, the sterling brand and the location, you can live in this building and don’t need to leave. We will have everything.”