With the Spring shareholder meeting fast approaching, minority shareholder Marlene Krauss, MD, Pld., Harvard MBA, together with her new general manager Arnold Tamasar, is loudly trumpeting the claim that the Chelsea Hotel is at maximum occupancy. But isn’t it funny how, except perhaps on week-ends, the place seems half-empty?
Actually, the 100% occupancy claim is intended to obscure certain inconvenient facts. For one thing, we would estimate that as many as 30% of the rooms have been taken off of the books, many, such as Bob Dylan’s room and Arthur Miller's room, for “renovation”, while other rooms have simply been allowed to sit empty—or to be used as crash pads for workers on double shifts. Additionally, rooms are being used for storage because there's no place to put extra blankets that were previously stored in the basement.
Furthermore, it’s not like the hotel is getting top dollar for these rooms. People aren’t coming here because it’s the Chelsea anymore; they’re coming here because they’re advertising cheap rooms on the internet. The smallest rooms with shared baths fill up first, and then tourists who arrive later are given “upgrades” to the larger rooms for the same price or maybe a few dollars more. Otherwise, the large rooms would sit empty.
And what about the retail spaces, Marlene? We thought the reason you emptied them was to get higher paying tenants.
Have those temporary art installations been paying the bills? Will we be getting that Lard Lad donut shop anytime this century? It now seems like you’ve lost Star Lounge as well: boo, hoo, hoo!
Come clean, Marlene. We’re sick of hearing all this blather about these bogus percentages. The bottom line is
that the Chelsea is losing money hand over fist. — Ed Hamilton
Living with Legends 
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