all of the remaining buildings on the block by October 1976. After the Dollar Savings Bank reacquired the hotel, it hired the firm of Stephen B. Jacobs and Associates to study the feasibility of converting the Shelton to residential apartments. Halloran House Contractor Edward "Biff" Halloran bought a purchase option for the hotel in July 1976; the option allowed Halloran to pay $11 million for the Shelton if he could relocate the eight holdouts and sign an agreement with a "Class A hotel" by the beginning of September. At the time, Halloran was negotiating to operate the hotel as a franchise of Holiday Inn. The Shelton's remaining tenants quickly agreed to relocate after Halloran offered to give them free rent for the rest of their lives. The New York Daily News reported in October 1976 that a "West Coast-based syndicate" was in the process of buying the hotel. The city's Industrial and Commercial Incentive Board approved a tax abatement for the project, which was expected to cost $21 million, in February 1977. That April, the Starrett Corporation received a $6.4 million contract to renovate the hotel into a 650-room Howard Johnson's. Halloran renovated the hotel in collaboration with Norman Groh, who had received a franchise from Howard Johnson's. Jacobs was hired as the restoration architect, while George Clarkson was employed as the interior designer. The Shelton's renovation occurred amid an increase in occupancy rates at New York City's hotels, which had an occupancy rate of 90 percent by 1978. As part of the project, the hotel's facade was restored, while its interiors were updated to meet modern building codes. According to Jacobs, the Shelton cost less than $30,000 per room to renovate, while a new hotel of similar size would have cost over $100,000 per room. The hotel reopened in November 1978, shortly after Thanksgiving, and Mary Diem was appointed as the hotel's manager in January 1979. The Attorney General of New York filed an antitrust lawsuit against several of Halloran's companies in 1984, including the companies that operated the Halloran House. According to the attorney general's office, the hotel's operators had acted as guarantors for Halloran's other companies, which allegedly held a monopoly on ready mixed concrete in New York City. At the end of December 1984, Halloran sold the hotel to 525 Lexington Avenue Associates, which was partly controlled by Morris Bailey. 525 Lexington Ave. Associates planned to