HOTEL BROKE ITS ‘HIP’
No longer ‘cool’: suit
A Caribbean resort wants to pull the plug on its promotional pact with the Gansevoort Meatpacking NYC hotel — because it says the hipster Manhattan mecca isn’t cool enough anymore.
The Gansevoort, which helped transform the Meatpacking District from slaughterhouse central to a nightclub hot spot, is dragging down its sister resort, the Wymara Turks & Caicos, after losing its “cool factor,’’ a new lawsuit charges.
“The Gansevoort brand has deteriorated to the point that it now is certainly not in Wymara’s best interests to any longer be affiliated with the tattered vestiges of this once high-flying brand,” according to the suit, which was filed Monday in Nassau County Supreme Court.
Wymara’s owners say they have paid the Gansevoort Hotel Group “significant sums” for the “privilege of being associated” with the chain’s brand since its 2009 opening.
Gansevoort opened its 187room flagship property in the Meatpacking District in 2004. The hotel is “widely credited with transforming the Meatpacking District from the
home of hundreds of slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants with illicit sexual activity into today’s trendy locale of clubs, bistros, and designer boutiques,” court documents state.
It was also known as a celebrity hot spot. Kim Kardashian and her first husband, NBA’er Kris Humphries, rented the penthouse suite for $7,000 a night in 2011. Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry and Rihanna also booked rooms at the hotel, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were spotted lounging poolside there in 2014.
But recent online reviews have called the hotel, at Ninth Avenue and Gansevoort Street, “a big disappointment” “dying” and “outdated,” the papers claim.
One guest wrote on TripAdvisor in May, “big disappointment: . . . will we go back? Hell no!!! We were also looking at booking with one of the other Gansevoort hotels in Turks or DR .... will we????? Ummrnmrn NO!!!” the suit says.
“In fact, Gansevoort has entertained offers to sell the NYC Gansevoort because the property has lost its ‘ cool factor’ and needs costly updates and renovations,” the papers state.
The New York-based GansEvoort hospitality group has already unloaded its Park Avenue location and shuttered its Miami hotel.
“In short, the Gansevoort brand is nearly dead, and Gansevoort has no plans to resuscitate it,” according to court papers. Wymara is suing to cut ties wiwith Gansevoort and for other unspecified damages.
A rep for the Gansevoort Hotel Group did not return a message seeking comment.