Usually these things are simple. A hotelier comes along tears down a building – places its residents in other places. But this time around, it is not that simple. What’s happening at the White House hotel is that the landmark folks – people that decide whether or not a building holds historic value – have stepped in.

They’re saying that the White House hotel may be a historic landmark and therefore cannot be torn down. Or at least, the facade would have to be maintained before anything happens. So they’re going to decide what happens next week.

From what I understand of flop houses and hoteliers, this is one of those battles that will continue being fought until people lose interest in NYC and forever invest in countries like Dubai.