The article in The New York Observer devotes several paragraphs to the claim that Stanley is a bad businessman. Mainly, it’s board member Marlene Krauss – Harvard MBA in case you missed that – who 
is taking Stanley to task: “Frankly, it’s time that somebody watched what Stanley is doing.”
Somebody should watch what Marlene (Harvard MBA, ’67) is doing as well. Her Summer Infant company has recently been sued for poaching employees from a competitor and stealing trade secrets. In a separate case, Summer Infant was sued for patent infringement as well. Summer Infant had to recently recall 5,000 of their Garden Play Yard crib rail toys because they posed a hazard of cuts and puncture wounds. Most hilariously, Summer Infant Baby Monitors were recently found to be receiving NASA broadcasts from the Space Shuttle! What is this woman doing to our children?
Anyway, Marlene (Harvard MBA, ’67) never made a peep when the Chelsea was in the middle of a depressed neighborhood and Stanley was still managing to turn a profit. It’s only now that the property is so valuable that she gives a damn and is “embarrassed to pass it on…” to her children. At least it won’t be as bad as puncture wounds and Vulcan Mind Probes. Resistance is Futile!
I do at least like the headline on this piece, apparently an editor’s sly joke; “Nasty Checks into the Chelsea!” You can say that again.
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Hotel Chelsea Blog
12 responses to “Bartleby the Scrivener vs. Klingon Death Rays”
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I think that dear Marlene may actually be a Dalek!
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Good work digging all this up, bloggers!
Nasty came with Marlene Krauss and David Elder, who have no end of bad things to say about Stanley and the hotel despite spending so very very little time in it. I just can’t get over the unmitigated gall of these minority shareholders, Elder’s Trust with a mere 16%, Krauss with just 26%, marching into a place they hardly know and don’t understand and just taking over from a man who has run the place for fifty years, with 58% of the stock. Then justifying it with the most chilling of corporatese, further emphasizing that they’re completely clueless about Stanley and the Chelsea. And here they have plenty of accusations against them for what are considered bad business practices. Talk about ego, and arrogance. They should be ashamed of themselves for the things they say, have said, and are saying about Stanley now.LikeLike
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Krauss’ company, KBL Healthcare, just went public this week. They sold 17.25 million shares (ticker KHA) at $8.00 each. According to the prospectus, Krauss and Berk each own approximately 10% of the shares. Their company is designated as ‘a blank check company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, stock purchase, asset acquisition or other similar business combination with one or more operating business in the healthcare or healthcare-related industries.’ Summer Infant is just the first in a long line of acquistions. So watch out NASA. We should probably warn the Russian cosmonauts, too.
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Marlene Krauss is all in a dither because Stanley gave El Quijote, a Chelsea intitution,a 40-year lease. (Thank God.) Who gives a 40-year lease, she asks Stanley does! He’s a different kind of hotelier. They just don’t get it. How could they not appreciate the quirky self-made thing that El Quijote is?
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You should add a stock ticker to track KBL Healthcare. The ticker symbol on the American Stock Exchange is KHA.U
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Can I just bypass the moralizing and start calling her names? Stupid c***.
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Oh my God. I just heard about this. This is terrible. I stayed at the hotel many times when in New York, once with my band. David Bard helped me bring my bags up because all the bellmen were busy. Stanley came to our performance! What a sad sad sad development.
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Well, Kelsey, you can go straight to name calling, but it seems that, if there’s anything she’s NOT, it’s “stupid.”
The one name I HOPE we can call her is “compassionate” when it comes to the tenants’ situation. Business between partners/shareholders is one thing, but it would truly be a terrible thing if the people who live at the hotel were forced to suffer when a great many of them have contributed a multitude of talent, not just to the hotel itself, but to the entire world. And EVERYONE who lives there contributes to the character and spirit of the hotel.LikeLike
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She might be smart about retinal surgery and and IPOs, but she has demonstrated nothing but ignorance about the hotel and its residents.
Totally agree that EVERYONE who lives there (with perhaps one or two exceptions) contributes to the character and spirit of the hotel.LikeLike
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Totally valid. Let’s hope she uses the intelligence God gave her to see how important it is to maintain the integrity of the Chelsea and make it accessible for both this and future generations of artists.
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Though I will say I don’t think it was too smart to infringe on patents or release products that could be potentially harmful to children or steal trade secrets or…well, you get the idea.
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Yeah, where was she in the 1970s when it was rougher and full of wild people. It’s all about money.
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