Grand Central Terminal. After Penn Central went bankrupt that year, the company sought to sell its properties, including the land below the Biltmore Hotel. The buildings were placed for auction in October 1971, and UGP Properties made a low bid of $11.65 million for the hotel. The proceedings were delayed for several years. UGP and Penn Central proposed a 56-story skyscraper for the Biltmore Hotel's site in 1972 after Penn Central unsuccessfully tried to replace the adjacent Grand Central Terminal with a skyscraper. Penn Central had placed all of Realty Hotels' properties for sale but subsequently withdrew its offer to sell the hotels. Instead, Penn Central spent $4.5 million renovating the Biltmore, Barclay, and Roosevelt hotels in 1976. In April 1978, Penn Central requested permission from a federal district court to sell the Biltmore, Barclay, and Roosevelt hotels for $45 million to Loews Hotels. The New York City government also offered the Biltmore Hotel's unused air rights to Penn Central in exchange for allowing the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to designate Grand Central Terminal as a city landmark, a move that Penn Central had opposed. A consortium of Middle Eastern investors subsequently offered to buy the hotels for $50 million. Loews raised its offer for the three hotels to $55 million, and a federal judge approved the sale at the beginning of June 1978. Carter B. Horsley wrote that Loews's purchase of the three hotels "may save their future". At the time, the hotel had 907 rooms. Loews resold the Biltmore and the Roosevelt to developer Paul Milstein in July 1978 for $30 million. The old Biltmore Bar was replaced in 1978 by the Cafe Fanny restaurant, operated by George Lang, which closed in April 1979. The space, in turn, became a computer store. In the hotel's final years, it became visibly dilapidated, and the owners refused to buy new furnishings, despite a shortage of such objects as tableware and linens. In addition, the Biltmore faced increasing competition from newer hotels, and it was only able to secure "cheap conventions and tourist groups", according to its manager. The New York Times reported that, during the late 1970s, there were rumors that the Biltmore would be converted to another use, rebuilt, or demolished. Closure and office conversion In March 1981, Milstein filed plans with the city to gut the hotel and rebuild it as an office building. Initially,