'Chelsea Morning' : Iconic hotel for sale

NEW YORK:
New York City's Hotel Chelsea, the bohemian landmark where poet Dylan Thomas collapsed in a coma before dying in 1953 and where the girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious was fatally stabbed in 1978, is up for sale, its owners announced on Tuesday.

Celebrated in songs like Joni Mitchell's 'Chelsea Morning' and Nico's 'Chelsea Girl,' the 1883 building has offered short and long-term shelter to generations of artists and musicians. Notable residents have included Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill , Patti Smith, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison.

The hotel's legacy as an artists' playground could be in doubt after the group of families that has owned it for 65 years decided to sell.

They have not named an asking price. "The hotel will always continue to be a destination for creativity and art, that's what makes it so special ," shareholder Paul Brounstein said in a statement . "Nothing can ever change that."

But residents said they are in the dark about the building's future. Boasting wrought-iron balconies and a 12-story staircase , it was the city's first cooperative apartment complex when it was built but has been a hotel since 1905.

Today it has 125 transient hotel rooms where rates start at $189 a night and 101 residential units