After 54 years as one of the most exclusive and luxurious restaurants in NYC, the iconic Four Seasons could be threatened with a huge rent increase, according to Eleazar David Melendez at The Huffington Post.
The midtown Manhattan dining room, which is beloved by business tycoons and high-rollers, is facing an unprecedented rent spike — from $19.74 per square foot to $125 per square foot when the lease expires in late 2016, according to Melendez, citing documents from the building's new mortgage agreement.
To put that in perspective, that would be $3.68 million per year to rent the 29,475-square-foot property, starting in 2016.
The possible rent increase comes after the owners of the Seagram Building — which houses The Four Seasons — took out a $782.8 million mortgage against the property.
The mortgage was financed by bankers at Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, who are now trying to sell the property to investors. One of their major selling points, according to the Huffington Post, is that management plans to charge The Four Seasons at "market levels."
As of yet, The Four Seasons has not heard of any potential rent hike, according to the Huffington Post, and co-owner Alex Von Bidder laughed when he heard how much the bankers were projecting he'd pay in rent after 2016.
Though Von Bidder did not comment on whether the rent spike would put him out of business, the restaurant's interior was designated a historical landmark by the city of New York in 1990.
So even if The Four Seasons does close, it will be difficult to find a replacement tenant for the famous dining room.