UPDATE: Westchester Hilton closing; Rye Brook awaiting plan for property
The Hilton Westchester in Rye Brook is closing and the village is poised to review whatever proposal may be offered by the property’s owner for new uses on the 35-acre property at 699 Westchester Ave. The Business Journal on July 10 confirmed that the closing was taking place with Rye Brook Mayor Paul S. Rosenberg.
In response to the Business Journal’s request, Hilton Worldwide Holdings provided a statement attributed to Kai Fischer, general manager of the Hilton Westchester.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic, after 47 years Hilton Westchester will regrettably be closing its doors. The hotel will be contacting all future guests and clients to assist them in finding alternative accommodations. We”™ve enjoyed serving the Rye community and will miss welcoming our guests with our signature Hilton hospitality,” Fischer’s statement said.
In a notice filed with the New York State Department of Labor, the hotel stated that 239 employees are losing their jobs.
A source said that negotiations had been underway between the Hilton Westchester and Local 6 of the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, AFL-CIO, regarding a severance package for the approximately 150 union members who are among the employees being laid off.
The hotel property had been purchased a couple of years ago by Fraydun “Fred” Manocherian, a real estate developer who with his brothers founded Manocherian Brothers and Pan Am Equities. They own and/or manage approximately 85 buildings in New York City. Manocherian is founder of the National Road Safety Foundation and founder of the New York Health & Racquet Club.
“We have been informed by the owner that they intend to close the hotel and they have been losing a significant amount of money over the past several years and that they just cannot turn a profit,” Rosenberg told the Business Journal. “They had been somewhat struggling prior to the pandemic and I think the pandemic was what really put the nail in the coffin, unfortunately.”
The hotel, with 445 guest rooms, 19 meeting rooms, a total of 33,063 square feet of event space and parking lots, had been operated under a franchise from Hilton, according to Rosenberg. He described a conversation with the owners’ representatives in which they said that the hotel industry is very competitive and competition would not allow them to charge the room rates they needed to make things work.
Rosenberg characterized the future of the property as the million-dollar question.
“We have been in conversation with them throughout the pandemic and I know they are looking to do something with the property. We had started conversations, but it’s for them to come to us with thoughts as to what they would like to do with the property and then the village board can give them informal feedback, ‘Yes we would like to see that type of a facility’ or ‘No we wouldn’t’ before they spend the time and the money and the effort to go through a formal application process,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg pointed out that the property right now is zoned for a hotel and he said his suggestion would be to keep that zoning and scale back the hotel while adding something compatible. He said that when an informal idea was floated of adding a senior living facility of some sort the village board was very encouraged.
“It’s a very large property. Both facilities would make use of the hotel recreation amenities as well as the hotel kitchen,” Rosenberg said. He said that idea was floated several years ago but wasn’t pursued.
Rosenberg characterized the event space at the hotel as being very important to Westchester County.
“When you think about what this facility has had in the past, the state political conventions that have taken place there, the banquets, the weddings, there was a very large Jewish group that used to rent out the entire hotel for Passover,” Rosenberg said. “I remember when Joe Torre left the New York Yankees as manager; where did he have his press conference? In the huge banquet hall, ballroom, in the Rye Town Hilton (the former name of the facility).”
Rosenberg said that Rye Brook would be losing its 3% hotel room occupancy tax in addition to property taxes and sales taxes.
“Between the Hilton and Doral Arrowwood that closed here as well, that used to bring $800,000 in hotel occupancy taxes to the village,” Rosenberg said.
“We want to be supportive of all of our businesses in Rye Brook and whenever they come to us with a formal application we will address it as quickly as we can,” Rosenberg said. “The most important thing to us is to see that our businesses are successful.”