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Decades-Old Pan American Hotel Flies Into the Sunset

By Katie Honan | January 16, 2014 4:31pm | Updated on January 16, 2014 5:33pm
 The large Queens Boulevard hotel is up for sale, and closed earlier this month.
Pan American Hotel on Queens Boulevard Up For Sale
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ELMHURST — The decades-old Pan American Hotel on Queens Boulevard, dubbed "New York City's Most Convenient Hotel," has come in for its final landing, despite saying on its website that it was just "closed for renovations."

The seven-story, 216-room hotel closed its doors to hotel guests on Jan. 7, according to an employee working there Thursday, who asked not to be identified.

He said the employees were told in September that the hotel, near 51st Avenue, would close.

A spokesman for the New York Hotel Trades Council said the more than 40 employees working at the Pan American were given "ample notice" by the owners before they were laid off.

"Many have already been in here for job placement," he said.

The hotel's employees — some who spent 50 years there — were highlighted on the company's website.

The site also touted the hotel's proximity both to midtown Manhattan and local airports, as well as nearby cultural attractions, including the U.S National Tennis Center in Flushing-Meadows Corona Park and Citi Field.

The site said the hotel is "closed for renovations," but the building has been sold, according to Tom Donovan, an agent with Massey Knakal.

According to the listing, which is still online, the hotel includes around 7,000 square feet of retail space and over 70,000 square feet of "additional development potential."

Donovan couldn't say what the site will become. A call to the hotel's manager was not immediately returned.