FROM  AD WEEK

…Even by New York standards, the Hotel Chelsea—a red brick monolith that’s dominated West 23rd Street for the past 129 years—is a hostel like no other. Behind its wrought-iron balconies, an artistic who’s who accomplished their triumphs and travesties: Dylan Thomas drank, Andy Warhol filmed, William Burroughs wrote, and Sex Pistols guitarist Sid Vicious stabbed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen to death.

All that, of course, is history—but it’s also marketing. A building this old with stories this deep is a brand in the making. And if developer Ed Scheetz gets his way, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

Scheetz, a veteran hotelier who cut his teeth with Ian Schrager at the Morgans Hotel Group, became the Chelsea’s sole owner last year. In addition to renovating the landmark hotel, Scheetz will also apply the famous Chelsea name to his small but growing portfolio of historic hotels in the city.

In other words: New York’s most famous bohemian landmark just became the latest entrant to the boutique hotel category.

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