Waldorf Astoria To Close for Three Years for Condo Overhaul

The Waldorf Astoria, self-billed as "0ne of the world's most grand hotels," will be closing down in 2017 as developers gut the interior in order to convert it into condos.

Bloomberg reports the hotel will close in spring 2017 in order to turn about 75 percent of the building's rooms into condominiums.

The Anbang Insurance Co., a Chinese company which purchased the hotel in 2014 for $1.95 billion, would leave the hotel closed for three years before re-opening as a tandem hotel and condo building. The remaining 300 to 500 hotel rooms would all be luxury rooms, Bloomberg reports. It currently has 1,413 hotel rooms.

The decision to convert most of the hotel rooms into condos will cause many of the 1,500 employees currently working as staff to lose their jobs, according to reports.

The current Waldorf Astoria was originally built in 1931 and was the tallest hotel in the world for 32 years. It's $1.95 billion price tag makes it the most expensive hotel ever sold.

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Photo Credit: Jeffrey Zeldman via Flickr/Creative Commons