A Chinese insurance company has just became the new owner of the world-renowned Waldorf Astoria in New York city. Anbang Insurance Group, a Beijing-based company, has acquired the luxury hotel for the sum of $1.95 million. Alongside this sum, the Chinese company also signed an agreement with the Hilton group that would permit the latter to continue operating the Waldorf under a ‘strategic partnership’ clause for another 100 years. The hotel enters a new phase of its existence as it will soon undergo major renovations aimed at bringing the building back to its ‘historic grandeur,’ as a joint statement from Anbang and Hilton claims.
Out of a total of 27 luxury hotels based worldwide, New York’s Waldorf Astoria is, most probably, the best known and a ‘flagship,’ as CNN News states, for what the Hilton group stands for. 1893 was the year when the hotel first opened its doors to receive the first well-to-do clients. It was built on the location of William Waldorf Astor’s mansion, on Fifth Avenue. John Jacob Astor IV, one of New York’s millionaires of that time and, also, Waldorf’s cousin, rebuilt the hotel several years later on a different, nearby location. The prohibition era did not left the hotel untouched. It entered a dark phase as it lacked basic maintenance repairs and became increasingly more obscure. The inevitable eventually produce and, in 1929, the Waldorf Astoria was torn down to make room for another building significant for what New York stands for: the Empire State Building.
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Still, the legend did not perish along with the demolition of the building and, in 1931, the Waldorf Astoria was rebuilt on Park Avenue where it still stands today. The hotel was and still is a favorite destination for heads of state, celebrities and mostly well-to-do people who can afford the pricey luxuries of a hotel such as Waldorf Astoria. Meanwhile, the Hilton group plans to open nine more luxury hotels worldwide in locations such as Bali, Bangkok and Beverly Hills. The money gained from the New York Waldorf Astoria sale will go into completing this plan.