The Millennium Hilton New York Downtown is a Hilton hotel in Lower Manhattan, New York City, located at the southeast corner of Fulton Street and Church Street. The hotel is adjacent to 195 Broadway, with which it shares the block, and is located across Church Street from the World Trade Center. The building is 55 stories tall, with a total of 471 guest rooms and 98 suites. The hotel was known for many years as the Millenium Hilton. The hotel's builder chose to intentionally misspell the name with one "n" as "Millenium" on the outdoor signage and official literature, even though the correct spelling of the English word is "", in order to make the name more distinctive.
History
In 1984, AT&T moved out of its adjacent headquarters at 195 Broadway. The block bounded by Fulton, Church, and Dey Streets and Broadway, including 195 Broadway, was sold for $70 million to Peter Kalikow. Kalikow destroyed two smaller structures near the block's western boundary. He considered two plans—those for an office building and for a hotel—switching between the plans before finally deciding upon a hotel. Kalikow built the hotel at a cost of $200 million and it opened in September 1992. Soon after opening the hotel, Kalikow went into bankruptcy and was forced to sell the hotel. It was bought in June 1994 by CDL Hotel from Kalikow Fulton Church Realty for $75 million. At that time, Hilton began managing the property. The hotel is one of four hotels owned by Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, that are not marketed as part of their Millennium Hotels chain, instead they are managed by Hilton Hotels Corporation. The others are the Millennium Hilton New York One UN Plaza, Millennium Seoul Hilton and Millennium Hilton Bangkok.
The building suffered extensive damage from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It was completely refurbished and reopened on May 5, 2003. The U.S. flag which hung outside the building on 9/11 was recovered by hotel workers and is now on display in the lobby.
