Trump Parc and Trump Parc East: The 1930 Barbizon-Plaza Hotel Trump Bought and Converted

By Solomon Rokowsky

The gilded crown of Trump Parc, 106 Central Park South. Photograph by Tony Hisgett, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0.

Trump Parc and Trump Parc East are two neighboring residential buildings on Central Park South. Donald Trump did not build either one. He bought them in 1981 and turned the larger of the two, a 1930 hotel, into condominiums. The story is mostly about what he wanted to do with the buildings, what the tenants stopped him from doing, and what he did instead.

Trump Parc is at 106 Central Park South, where the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel stood. Trump Parc East is next door at 100 Central Park South. This article covers both because Trump bought them together and the 1986 plans treated them as a pair.

What was the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel?

The Barbizon-Plaza opened on May 12, 1930, at 106 Central Park South, facing Central Park at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 58th Street. The New York City chapter of the American Guild of Organists, which documents the hotel because of its concert hall organ, says it rose 38 stories and cost $10 million. The architects were Murgatroyd & Ogden with Laurence Emmons. It had about 1,400 rooms, along with concert halls and studios.

The top of the building was part of its identity. The original roof was clad in glass tile and lit from within, according to the same source. It was later redesigned with a gilded roof, and the gold crown is still the feature people notice from Central Park today.

A room at the Barbizon Plaza Hotel, 6th Avenue and 58th Street. Gottscho-Schleisner Collection, Library of Congress. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

When did Trump buy the Barbizon-Plaza and 100 Central Park South?

Trump's own account puts the purchase in early 1981. In a Vanity Fair excerpt from his memoir, published in December 1987, he describes buying 100 Central Park South, a 15-story building with rent-regulated tenants, together with the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel, which he describes as 39 stories. The hotel's own architectural documentation gives 38, so the stories count differs by source.

The excerpt is clear about the plan. Trump wanted to demolish both buildings and put up a single condominium tower. The tenants of 100 Central Park South stood in the way, and the fight lasted years.

How did the tenants stop the demolition?

The New York Times reported on March 5, 1986 that Trump had dropped a five-year effort to evict the tenants. The article says he decided that renovating the buildings would be faster than continuing the fight. That meant 100 Central Park South, which is now Trump Parc East, stayed standing with its rent-regulated tenants. The Times reported on October 17, 1986 that the building would remain rent-regulated while the hotel next door was converted.

Trump Parc and Trump Parc East from the street. Photograph by Ajay Suresh, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

How did the hotel become Trump Parc?

According to the October 17, 1986 Times article, the Barbizon hotel closed in February 1986. Trump gutted it and renamed it Trump Parc. The article says the conversion would produce condominiums, with a planned opening in December 1987. The design was by Frank Williams Associates, and the exterior of both buildings was to be unified in a pale beige with gold trim. That is why the two buildings read as a matched pair from the park, even though they were built decades apart.

The date of the conversion is a point where the sources do not agree. The Trump Organization says Trump Parc was renovated in 1987. A New York Times blog post from March 2013 says it opened in 1988. The Times's own 1986 plan called for a December 1987 opening. The sources do not reconcile the dates.

How big are the two buildings?

The sources give different numbers.

Trump Parc. The Trump Organization says 38 stories and 340 residences. The broker Compass lists 37 stories and 414 units. A Trump Parc brochure from Trump International Realty is the source for the 340 figure and the 1987 renovation date.

Trump Parc East. The building's own website says 14 stories and 81 residences. The 1986 Times calls it a 15-story building. None of the sources explain the difference, so this article gives both.

What did Trump's own account say went wrong?

The Vanity Fair excerpt is blunt about the economics. Trump wrote that the Barbizon-Plaza was a somewhat run-down, middle-priced hotel earning a minimal profit at best, and that 100 Central Park South was full of rent-controlled and rent-stabilized apartments whose rents barely covered operating costs. He said he considered selling, or a modest renovation, before settling on demolition and a single condominium tower. He also wrote that the Barbizon wrapped around 100 Central Park South, so that the two had to be dealt with together.

Emptying the hotel was easy, he wrote, because all he had to do was stop renting rooms. Emptying the apartment house was not. He hired Citadel Management to find new homes for tenants and to keep essential services running. The tenants formed an association, hired a lawyer, and, in his words, cost was no object, because the wealthiest tenants had the most to lose. He wrote that he made a critical mistake by not getting involved himself. This is Trump's telling, published in a book excerpt, so it is one side of a long dispute.

The October 1986 Times article adds details from the end of the fight. A contract that would let Trump replace all the windows in 100 Central Park South was still pending, and the tenants' chairman, John C. Moore, said it could leave the building without windows for three months. The Times also reported that apartments at 100 Central Park South would be remodeled as they became vacant and then re-let at market rents. The article does not say how the window contract ended.

Central Park South from across the pond in Central Park, including Hampshire House, Trump Parc and Trump Parc East. Photograph by Peter H. Feist, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Did Trump build Trump Parc?

No. He bought an existing hotel and an existing apartment house and converted the hotel. The shell of Trump Parc dates to 1930 and the shell of Trump Parc East dates to 1929 according to the building's own site. What Trump did was gut the hotel interior, redesign the apartments and, according to the 1986 Times, unify the exteriors. That is a real change to the building, but it is a conversion, not new construction, and this article calls it that.

The gilded top of Trump Parc beside Central Park. Photograph by giggel, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 3.0.

Is Trump Parc a landmark?

This article found no landmark designation for either building. A broker's listing page says Trump Parc is not landmarked, but a broker is not an official source, and this article could not confirm it against the Landmarks Preservation Commission's records. Treat it as not found rather than as confirmed.

Where can you eat or drink at Trump Parc?

This article did not identify any public restaurant, bar or lounge in Trump Parc or Trump Parc East. Both are residential condominiums. The old hotel had concert halls and studios, but the sources read do not describe any of that space as open to the public now. Ground-floor retail on the block may include food businesses, but this article could not verify any of them from an official source, so it does not name one. If you want a drink or a meal nearby, the Central Park South blocks have many options, but check each venue's own site for hours.

Who owns Trump Parc today?

The apartments are condominiums owned by individual residents, and each building has its own board. The Trump Organization lists Trump Parc in its residential portfolio, and Trump Parc East has its own website. The sources read do not say who owns the ground-floor commercial space, and this article does not guess.

Sources

• New York City AGO, Barbizon-Plaza Hotel (organ and building history)
• The New York Times, About Real Estate: New Trump Plan to Make 2 Buildings Look Like 1 (October 17, 1986)
• The New York Times, Trump Drops 5-Year Effort to Evict Tenants (March 5, 1986)
• Vanity Fair, excerpt from Trump: The Art of the Deal (December 1987)
• The Trump Organization, Trump Parc
• Trump International Realty, Trump Parc building brochure
• Trump Parc East, building page
• The New York Times, City Room, Big Ticket: Sold for $14.25 Million, Luxury Combined (March 15, 2013)