The project is $US50 million over budget, Naftali says. The other half will include 130 hotel rooms and 152 so-called hotel apartments, where owners can live for as many as 120 days a year and let the hotel rent their units the rest of the time. More than 10 per cent of the 8500 apartments sold in Manhattan last year were in the Plaza's $US2.5 million to $US40 million price range, according to data from appraisal firm Miller Samuel and real estate company Terra Holdings.ДЄpartments will make up about half of the new space at the Plaza, which has been closed since April 2005. The apartments are among the priciest in the most expensive urban real estate market in the US. 'Everything is about the details.'Д®ven without tours, buyers have signed contracts for about 80 per cent of the apartments, according to Stribling. 'I don't want to show it 80 per cent done,' he says. Reconstructing them calls for new rules, Naftali says. The Plaza is known for such historic spaces as the Palm Court restaurant, the Oak Bar and the Terrace Room, where a children's book heroine named Eloise spied on debutante balls.

Miki Naftali, Elad's chief executive officer, says he wants to minimise construction distractions and maximise the surprise when the renovation is completed. 'You get the real experience,' says Mario Procida, a developer of architect Richard Meier's new building at 1 Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York. Toll Brothers, the largest US luxury-home builder, shows its first Manhattan development at 110 Third Avenue, to people who deposit $US200. Real estate executives involved in 12 high-end residential projects in New York City and New Jersey say they allow tours of buildings under construction.

'If you are buying a $US30 million apartment, you are entitled to see the view.' She and her father, former Russian nickel executive Oleg Baibakov, abandoned the Plaza after sales agent Stribling & Associates refused to show them a penthouse, she says. 'It's kind of silly,' says Maria Baibakova. The secrecy is prompting some would-be buyers to look elsewhere. The closed doors may add to the mystique of the 100-year-old landmark, where The Beatles, John F. She was turned down when she asked for a peek at the unit she's buying. 'It's been a nervous time,' says Barbara Girard, who waited more than a year before two model apartments were ready for her to look at last month. People buying one of the 182 apartments aren't even allowed to see what they're getting, just computerised images and a video of the view. They don't get far past the revolving door.Д®lad Properties, the New York developer spending $US400 million to convert the Plaza into a residential, hotel and retail complex, has shrouded the property in mystery since buying it for $US675 million in 2004. New Yorkers are paying up big for apartments that they can't even inspect, Sharon Crenson writes.Дoorman Ed Trinka, who has welcomed starlets, socialites and presidents to Manhattan's Plaza hotel for 44 years, now greets potential buyers of apartments starting at $US2.5 million ($3.14 million).

Starlet square apartments