Claim: In 2007, Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., a hospitality and leisure company, announced an agreement to raze the 53rd Street Library and replace it with an 11-story hotel and the library was vacated in 2008.
Evidence: Belmond Ltd. (formerly Orient-Express Hotels Ltd) is a hospitality and leisure company that operates luxury hotels, train services and river cruises worldwide. The 53rd Street Library is a branch of the New York Public Library at 18 West 53rd Street, just west of Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. In November 2007 Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. which owns the 21 Club directly south of the library on 52nd Street, announced an agreement to raze the library and replace it with an 11-story hotel. The library was vacated in the summer of 2008.