complete the hotel on schedule. The total cost of construction, including furnishings, was estimated at $10 million. The hotel itself comprised $5.5 million of this cost, the furnishings $1.5 million, and the land $3 million. At the hotel's opening, its rooms had already been leased for a combined $20 million. In describing the Biltmore's location above a portion of Grand Central Terminal, the Real Estate Record and Guide wrote: "The new Biltmore Hotel will, so far as we can recollect, be the first station hotel of any importance erected in this country." The Biltmore's operators rented the air rights above Grand Central Terminal's tracks, paying the New York Central $100,000 annually. Baumann and Bowman operation The Biltmore hosted its first dinner on December 28, 1913, with a celebration featuring various officials involved in the hotel's construction. The hotel informally opened on December 30, and the first guests arrived at the hotel the next day, December 31. The hotel also contained two brokerage offices when it opened. In its first year of operation, the Biltmore became extremely popular. Baumann operated the hotel for less than a year; he died on October 15, 1914, after falling from the hotel's roof while observing employees. At the time of Baumann's death, the hotel was valued at $4 million, of which $1.5 million was appraised as goodwill created by the hotel's prominent location in midtown Manhattan. Even so, Baumann had been operating the Biltmore at a net loss at the time of his death. Meanwhile, Allen H. Stem of Reed and Stem had sued Warren and Wetmore over Terminal City's architectural contract. After a protracted legal battle, the New York Supreme Court ordered Warren and Wetmore to pay Stem one percent of the Biltmore's construction cost. Bowman took control of the hotel's lease shortly after Baumann died. Under Bowman's management, members of the social elite began to frequent the Biltmore. By 1918, the hotel had an annual payroll of over $1 million. After Bowman and rival hotel operator Benjamin L. M. Bates agreed to merge their respective companies in May 1918, the Biltmore became part of the Bowman-Biltmore Hotels chain. Later the same year, Bowman said that the Biltmore, as well as his other hotels near Grand Central and Penn Station, were "doing more business than ever before". Bowman also developed other Biltmore hotels across the United States, all named after the hotel in New