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During the 1980s, Marriott Corp. took advantage of the go-go economy and favorable tax conditions to boost its New York City presence by roughly 2,000 rooms. Recently, Hilton International has polished its Big Apple properties by pumping more than $200 million into the Waldorf-Astoria and New York Hilton.
Meanwhile, at Sheraton's three New York hotels: silence reigned.
Analysts say Boston-based ITT Sheraton Corp., which has a strong international image with properties in 62 countries, has always been a day late and a dollar short on the domestic front.
Only this time, being slow on the uptake may work in its favor.
As part of a billion dollar North American spruce-up campaign, Sheraton has pledged $450 million to New York City--the centerpiece of its North American operations. Its three New York properties, the St. Regis, Sheraton Centre and Sheraton City Squire, have all been renovated and restored. So extensive has the make over been that Sheraton has virtually repositioned the properties in the marketplace as new hotels.
The company has even rechristened the Sheraton Centre and City Squire. Both located on Seventh Avenue, they'll now be known as the the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers and Sheraton Manhattan, respectively.
"Of all our properties in the United States, New York was, until recently, our biggest disappointment," says John Kapioltas, president, chairman and chief executive of the $717 million chain--a subsidiary of ITT Corp. "We needed to...