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Two-and-a-half years since it was forced to cease operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the legendary Gramercy Park Hotel at 2 Lexington Avenue by 22nd Street is opening its doors once more—albeit not welcoming hotel guests this time around. The luxurious destination is, in fact, hosting an everything-must-go liquidation sale.
Every single item on premise—including objects that used to reside in the lobby and others that belonged inside the 180 hotel rooms—is available for purchase. Think desks, art pieces, cocktail shakers, lamps, chairs and more. Apparently, entire rooms are up for grabs as well.
Price wise, items cost between $25 and $2,500. The sale is open to the public every day from 9am through 8pm for the next month or so, after which remaining products will go to auction. There is no entry fee to access the sale and, according to reports, current wait times are of about 15 minutes.
Of course, the sale is about much more than acquiring a pretty awesome roster of objects. Given the hotel's iconic background, customers end up owning a piece of history.
Built back in the mid-1920s, the Gramercy Park Hotel has hosted the likes of John F. Kennedy, Babe Ruth and Mary McCarthy throughout its existence. American actor Humphrey Bogart even married his first wife, actress Helen Menken, at the hotel.
Before shutting down, the venue was also home to Italian restaurant Maialiano—which is actually reopening as Maialino (vicino) at the Redbury Hotel in NoMad some time this fall—and beloved cocktail-den-slash-nightclub The Rose Bar.
Although we are by now used to seeing celebrated businesses suddenly shutter, this one feels particularly upsetting given the deep ties that the hotel has with the city as a whole—which is why we expect New Yorkers to flock to the venue for the sale in the next few weeks.
Goodbye, Gramercy Park Hotel.