acquire a Bowery Savings Bank branch at the corner of 47th Street and Seventh Avenue, surrounded by the original Palace Theatre building. Even after acquiring that site, he had to wait until after the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) reviewed the theater for city-landmark status in 1987. If the landmark status was approved, Silverstein would have to build around the theater. This was part of the LPC's wide-ranging effort in 1987 to grant landmark status to Broadway theaters. Ultimately, only the interior was designated as a landmark; a similar status for the exterior was denied. In late 1987, the theater closed after the last performance of La Cage aux Folles. The New York City Board of Estimate ratified the landmark designation in March 1988. The Nederlanders, the Shuberts, and Jujamcyn collectively sued the LPC in June 1988 to overturn the landmark designations of 22 theaters, including the Palace, on the merit that the designations severely limited the extent to which the theaters could be modified. The lawsuit was escalated to the New York Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States, but these designations were ultimately upheld in 1992. Meanwhile, the office wing was demolished (except for the lobby), as were two stories above the auditorium and two ancillary structures. Silverstein developed a 43-story Embassy Suites hotel on the site. The theater received a $1.5 million renovation as part of the $150 million hotel project. The hotel was completed in September 1990. The Will Rogers Follies opened in the renovated theater on May 1, 1991, running until 1993. The Palace then showed Beauty and the Beast from 1994 to 1999, before it transferred to the Lunt-Fontanne. Aida, which ran from 2000 through 2004, had 1,852 performances. The theater also staged Legally Blonde: The Musical from 2007 to 2008; West Side Story from 2009 to 2011; Priscilla, Queen of the Desert from 2011 to 2012; and Annie from 2012 to 2014. As part of a settlement with the United States Department of Justice in 2014, the Nederlanders agreed to improve disabled access at their nine Broadway theaters, including the Palace. Also in early 2014, the orchestra seating was rearranged as part of a $200,000 renovation prior to the opening of Holler If Ya Hear Me; that musical opened in June 2014 and ran for six weeks. An American in Paris, a stage adaptation of the 1951 MGM