Roosevelt Hotel closed for good

US media report says closure will render 431 employees jobless

NEW YORK:

The iconic Roosevelt Hotel, owned by the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), closed its doors permanently on December 18 due to a severe loss of revenue caused by the coronavirus pandemic, an American news and information platform has reported.

The closure was announced by the hotel’s General Manager Marc Sternagel in an email sent to a local government official on Friday, according to Patch.com. The closure will cause at least 431 employees to lose their jobs after they were initially furloughed in March, it added.

The management first announced in October that the 1,000-room hotel would close before the end of the year, “due to the current, unprecedented environment and the continued uncertain impact from Covid-19”.

The hotel, which opened in 1924, was named after President Theodore Roosevelt, is located next to the Grand Central Terminal, the train station. The Times Square Hilton and Omni Berkshire Place are the other big-name hotels in New York to close their doors for good due to economic fallout from the crisis.

The hospitality industry has been among the hardest-hit by the pandemic in the US. About 7.5 million workers in the industry lost their jobs in April, CNN reported, and only about half had been hired back by early fall. The Roosevelt Hotel management did not respond to a request for comments. APP