From Catastrophe to Crisis: BD Out, Fife In

We have received reliable information to the effect that, as of May 5, BD Hotels will no longer be managing the Chelsea Hotel.  They have reportedly been fired by minority shareholder Marlene Krauss, Harvard MBA, who, together with lobby layabout David Elder, controls the Chelsea’s Board of Directors.  (Alternately, it’s possible that the courts may stall the transition: though Marlene has already sent BD a termination notice, they are contesting it.) (Photo of the hoteliers during happier days.  As usual, David Bernstein is missing.)

Sub-Prime Crisis Derails BD’s Plans

To the best of our knowledge, here’s what happened: BD, with the connivance of the minority shareholders, had planned all along to buy the Chelsea Hotel.  To accomplish this they needed a smoking gun to pressure the Bard Family into selling the building.  But apparently Stanley ran a pretty tight ship: teams of accountants working 24-hours-a-day could find no such smoking gun.  So the Bards have no reason to sell.  And now, due to the sub-prime crisis, BD Hotels—which we hear had a chunk of its assets financed by Bear Stearns — has no money to buy the building anyway.  So the “two guys with cell phones,” Richard Born and Ira Drukier (who own BD), have been forced to retrench in order to focus on their leveraged properties, and now will have their hands full simply managing the buildings they own.  They can’t afford to buy any new buildings at this point.

Marlene’s Beef

Over the course of BD’s tenure, plumber’s daughter turned corporate raider Marlene Krauss has reputedly had several general complaints:

1. No one from BD does any work (this is directed specifically at Director of Operations Glennon Travis, who sits in his office all day and rarely takes an active role in hotel operations, or in addressing guest’s and resident’s concerns)

2. The supposed general manager, David Bernstein, is rarely on the premises

3. BD is not fixing up the hotel.  In particular, BD is not renovating rooms, as promised, but merely warehousing them

4. The hotel is reportedly losing money (or at least not making as much as it did under Stanley Bard), due to the slashing of room rates, and also, in part, to residents withholding rent

Besides these general complaints, in the past week Marlene has had to come to the hotel repeatedly to micromanage the repair of a resident’s apartment. That, together with a few other things that we’ll discuss in a future article, appears to represent the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Fife to Head Chelsea

If our sources are as reliable as we believe them to be, good riddance to bad rubbish.  The ass-clowns of BD have truly been the Marx Brothers of hotel management, and we’ve all had a good laugh, but now it’s time to move on.  Which brings us to the next question: who will Marlene hire to manage the hotel now?  She promised the rest of the shareholders that they would make more money with Stanley out of the picture, but instead they are losing money.  She’d better make the right choice this time.

            We can’t read Marlene’s mind, but the rumor—nearly unbelievable, and we hope it’s not true—is that she intends to appoint David Elder as manager of the hotel!  So here’s the story: we are going from this (supposedly) elite hotel firm that was going to transform the Chelsea into an exclusive boutique hotel, to a complete nincompoop and moral midget with absolutely no experience doing anything, much less managing a large Manhattan hotel.  (Elder’s “job” at the Chelsea seems to consist of hanging out in the lobby, occasionally attempting to coax members of our community into spying for him.  For the past few years he has been engaged in a court battle with his stepfather, noted Author Piri Thomas, attempting to deny the elderly man his dividends from the Chelsea Hotel.)  If BD wasn’t qualified, then how is this lunkhead—who apparently is being manipulated by Marlene and various lawyers-- going to do the job?

Obviously, Marlene thinks she can continue to control Elder, but we’re not so sure; we think she may be creating a monster.  If Elder is manager, will he be the one reporting the profits?  Taking into consideration what he’s doing to Piri Thomas, what makes Marlene so sure she can expect to collect her dividends?

Haven’t the residents of this hotel been through enough?  Please, don’t torture us like this, Marlene.  This is going to be like the episode of The Andy Griffith Show where Barney Fife gets to be Sheriff for the day.  Only, I fear, without the laughs. "Nip it in the bud!" -- Ed Hamilton

Comments

[techtool 7]

you're fried big shots with your black suits and fake smiles go home with your tail between you butts jerks, glennon and brenstien are two complete @ssholes and i hope some day they get taken threw a nasty little lie like what they have put us threw-in their homes where they live and see how they enjoyed it, having their lives screw with like they have done to us.now we all need to work together to get this place back to what was and still can be,i do think we need to cut david elders a little slack as well he dose seem to care about the place and the people here.and live here: he may be one of us after all

[Old & Crappy]

This is a joke, right? If not. This is way worse that BD. I'm stunned.

[LP]

You can't be serious. One would think Marlene Krauss would be a good enough businesswoman to cut her losses and return the hotel to the care of the Bards. But if this is true, it means her ego is such that she'd cut off her nose to spite her face. I mean, David Elder? Seriously? Well, kit's bad news for the hotel, but there should be such rich comic moments to help ease the pain of it all.

Is it really worth depriving the hotel of the bards and vice versa just so they can run the hotel into the ground? What hubris. I see a lot of books, plays and movies coming out of this mess.

[LP]

P,S. Elder one of us, techtool7? You;re kididng right? He's Marlene's stooge. Stand him next to Stanley bard and what do you see?

I see a Harvard Business Review Case Study coming out of this mess!

Marlene Krauss has just done the Bards a big fat favor.

[The Ghosts]

Marlene, there is an opportunity for you to exit gracefully. After chucking the Bards out and seriously damaging the reputation of the hotel, the only way you can turn a reasonable profit now is by turning it into a Howard Johnson's or Motel Six and even you are not shameful enough to do that, I hope. David Elder is no Stanley Bard or David Bard. Not by a long shot. Do you plan to spend seven days a week, 12 hours a day at the hotel attempting to do a fraction of hat Stanley did? You have a chance to do the right thing now, but the window will close soon. You took a shot, it failed. Be a good businessperson now and turn the hotel back to the Bards. As I said, you can get out of this fine mess now if you exit with grace and amity. Your other business interests and your family need you more than the Chelsea hotel. I hope you're listening, dear.

Can the judge rule that neither party deserves to manage the hotel? That would be my two cents. Both BD and Krauss and Elder have shown that they don't give a hoot about anything except mony. Maybe the judge can turn the management back over to the Bards.

[Miss H]

She thought she could apply MBA boilerplate to a strange place like the Chelsea Hotel, which has prospered by flouting the rules for decades. It's not just a hotel, it's a highly complex ecosystem. Remove essential life forms like the Bards from this ecosystem and it all goes wrong. Now it's just a pile of nice bricks. It's so sad that they couldn't see that before they did the damage.

I'm with Ghosts. All will be forgiven if they just give the hotel back to the Bards. We've all made mistakes. Ms. Krauss and Mr. Elder did here, and it's time to admit it and move on. Otherwise, there's a good chance they'll become bigger laughingstocks.

[LP]

According to Chris Schott in the Observer, BD is suing "the owners" for $2.7 million they say they are owed in fees. Does that include Stanley? He shouldn't have to pay, he had nothing to do with it.is it possible this is part of a scam to bankrupt the hotel so "the owners" are forced to sell the hotel? If Stanley ends up paying because of Krauss's and Elder's mismanagement and poor decisions, nothing less than tarring and feathering the Diabolical Duo and riding them out of town on rail will suffice.

techtool, if Elder was "one of us" he never would have gone along with ousting Stanley Bard. He may be playong Good Cop to Marlene's Bad Cop, but don't be fooled. He's a tool in every sense of the word.

[<3 Glennon 4eva]

just you wait all you "artist" have something coming to you. Learn something about the industry. Hotel Chelsea is out of money. There was no possible way for anyone at BD to redo the hotel while the owners possess no money to redo it. Soon it will be in foreclosure and you will learn what really happened. The last 20 years has ruined this place not the last year.

"one of us after all"? techtool, you evidently ain't "one of us" and neither is david elder if that is your interpretation of events

[818 505 8174]

NEWSFLASH: DAVID ELDER IS NOT ONLY "ONE OF US", BUT A HOTEL CHELSEA "CURATOR" TOO!!! HOW PATHETIC TO USE THE HOTEL'S ANNIVERSARY TO TRY AND WORM HIS WAY INTO THE HOTEL COMMUNITY -- WITH THE HELP OF ONE OR TWO SELF-PROMOTING RESIDENTS, WE MIGHT ADD. ELDER COULDN'T "CURATE" HIS WAY OUT OF ANYTHING EXCEPT GOOD TASTE AND COMMON DECENCY. YOU KNOW HE STEALS FROM HIS OWN ELDERLY FATHER, RIGHT TECHTOOL7?

[No Vacancy]

Any clue when David Elder is going to finally move out of Sid and Nancy's room? Isn't a year in there enough? Most valuable room in the Hotel, conceivably, and Elder is still camping out like the Hotel can't use the revenue generated by that room

[Hardboiled]

david elder can eat shit. one doesn't go about business the way he did and have any expectation of being accepted by those around him. yet, elder does. its really sad to watch, actually, the kissing up to residents in the lobby in that unbearable 'voice' of his. WOW. all i can say is he must have been hella lonely out in studio city with nobody to rip off, because he keeps on coming back to ny. he should try getting on with life -- maybe a career????

[LP]

That you Glennon? Nice try. According to the Piri Thomas court case papers the hotel was profitable. In my opinion it began going downhill a few years before the takeover, hen the minority partners started pressuring Stanley to make it more upscale, which cost a pretty penny. Nice try.

To <3 Glennon 4eva

Wow, <3 Glennon 4eva, what a creative screenname. What are you, 12 You "businesspeople" wouldn't know an "artist" if one bit you in the ass. Great plays, rock music, novels, operas, classical piano compositions, jazz and movies have come out of the place in the last ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years, around the same time Stanley ran the place. More came out of there in a day of Stanley's reign than in a year of BD/Glennon/Krauss/Elder mismanagement. Stanley kept that place going for over 50 years through thick and thin.

In other words, go fuck yourself.