The Tribeca Grand Is Changing Its Name

Tribeca Grand Hotel The RoxyDuring a Sunday afternoon constitutional, I wandered over to the Tribeca Grand to see if the hotel had finished its new sign. As you may recall, the other day I ran a picture of how the canopy says “hotel” on either side, and there’s a blank space in the middle. I was surprised to see that the front is covered up by a black panel—and one side of the clock, on the plaza, has had its face removed. So I asked a staffer if the canopy was going to say “Tribeca Grand” on it.

Staffer: No….
Me: Huh?
Staffer: They’re changing the name.
Me: WHAT? After all these years?
Staffer: That’s right.
Me: What’s the new name?
Staffer: The Roxy.
Me: [Pause due to a brief flashback to my clubgoing days.] And that’s why the clock face outside is gone, too?
Staffer: Yep. The change is supposed to happen in September.

Wondering if this was old news that I had simply missed, I Googled “Tribeca Grand Roxy.” All that came up was a trademark registration application from May; the applicant is Tribeca Grand Hotel, care of Hartz Mountain Industries, asking to trademark “THE ROXY HOTEL NYC.”

Tribeca Grand The Roxy

 

14 Comments

  1. And even earlier, there was magnificent movie theater next to the Taft Hotel named after a theatre entrepreneur.

  2. That’s a horrible name.

  3. way cooler name – TribeCa Grand was entirely generic and unmemorable. Roxy sounds like someplace you might actually want to stay.

  4. Not the best idea-while the Tribeca Grand was a peculiarly out of place name for a hotel in that location, there is absolutely no relation to anything “Roxy” about this hotel. But, if you know the Hartz people, they are generally convinced that their idea is the best idea.

  5. I spoke a gentleman at the front the desk this week about why the name change to Roxy and he pleaded ignorance while looking somewhat between embarrassed and coy.

  6. Does this mean “Tribeca” is losing its cachet? Oh woe! Oh desespoir!

  7. Ah, the Roxy. What fun days those were.

  8. Remember the days when the TriBeCa Grand/Roxy used to be a plant & gardening shop? I’m missin’ on those days sorry!

  9. Awful name that will lower their brand value. They should have run a focus group before choosing it.

  10. Sounds like a tired, old once-grand theatre now reduced to screening films with questionable plot lines…

  11. Does the name of this hotel really bother you people that much??

  12. So it’s just a name change?
    No change in design, management, ownership…?

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