There were no reservations about this sale.
Wares from the former Hudson Hotel in Hell’s Kitchen — a hip haven once frequented by Jon Bon Jovi, Taylor Swift, Denzel Washington, Debbie Harry and Kate Hudson — are up for grabs at an ongoing inventory liquidation.
The fire-sale items sprawled across the former lobby floor span the luxe to the mundane — from $1 shot glasses to a $300,000 Baccarat crystal chandelier. A fallen tree trunk bench will set you back $21,000, but a mounted elk’s head — only $1,200.
The sell-off opened to the public on Sept. 10– and continues until everything is gone. It comes amid the property’s recent $207 million purchase by Montgomery Street Partners. Manhattan-based developer CSC Coliving is leasing the 24-story building at West 58th Street between 9th and 8th Avenues, which it plans on converting into 438 below-market apartments.
Former employees and regulars alike now can pay $5 to get into the sale — and shop alongside hospitality insiders for pieces of the hotel’s history.
The Hudson was built in the late 1920s as the home of the American Woman’s Association in a project largely spearheaded by Anne Morgan, daughter of banking tycoon J.P. Morgan. It provided residences and a social club for young women in the business world.
In 1941, it became the Henry Hudson Hotel and offered co-ed living spaces, including for Navy officers during World War II, before later housing WNET-TV’s offices and studios.
By 2000, Studio 54 co-founder Ian Schrager and industrial designer Philippe Starck had given the hotel a vaunted facelift, with a slew of bars, a restaurant, and a nightclub. The glitterati spotted there included a sweaty Paul McCarney post-Madison Square Garden performance, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck for the former’s 30th birthday party, and Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee, watermelon martini in hand. The hotel ceased operations in 2020.
The goods — all available for the listed price, or in some cases best offer — have included:
Baccarat chandelier with hologram candles by German lighting designer Ingo Maurer ($300,000)
Antique Italian slate pool table with dome light by Ingo Maurer ($95,000)
Fallen tree-trunk bench by Dutch designer Jergen Bey in collaboration with design collective Droog ($21,000)
Ralph Lauren street chairs, designed exclusively for the hotel ($4,065 each)
Hand-carved African tree stump seat ($1,200)
Elk head ($1,200)
Antelope head ($450)
Mountain goat head ($250)
Gold urn-shaped pedestals ($8 each)
Unmarked shot glasses ($1)
Clothing hanger ($.50)
“Their furniture has always been iconic,” said Lady Kay Taiste, who dropped $350 on a haul that included a projector, a safe, two mirrors, ceramic cups and a yellow Ghost chair for her new apartment. “I’m hoping for a desk or two.”
Nicole Kabealo, project manager for International Content Liquidations, which is handling the inventory sale, said 500 people stopped by the first weekend.
Carrying colorful glass platters she’d once put out for buffets, Diana Barnett, a chef who worked in the hotel’s events department for 20 years, reminisced with former colleagues of the building’s glory days.
Barnett bemoaned though that she was too late to grab the photographs of a cow named Hermione wearing hats, shot by French fashion photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino and which hung in the hotel’s dimly-lit Library Bar.
“Anyone in New York that was cool enough to come here, you knew those photographs,” she said.