2. The land under The Lotte New York Palace is owned by the Archdiocese of New York
St. Patrick’s Cathedral sits just across the street from the Palace Hotel. Though one property is used for worship and the other is used for lodging, both are tied to the Catholic Church. Despite the many ownership changes experienced by the hotel, nobody, except the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, has owned all the land on which the Palace Hotel sits since 1971. Owners of the hotel have air rights, meaning they can build vertically on the land, but the land itself is owned by the Catholic Archdiocese.
When Helmsley owned the hotel, the archdiocese leased the air rights to the Palace Hotel for 99 years for $1 million per year. The price, though, has since increased. In 2017, the Archdiocese of New York filed for a $100 million mortgage on the hotel property in order to pay victims of sexual abuse who choose not to take legal action against the archdiocese.
