 Prohibition, enacted the year before in 1919, had impacted upon the hotel's business in its restaurants and bars, and Vincent decided to close the hotel and convert the structure into an office building.Vincent Astor hired architect Charles A. Platt to design the conversion.The luxury hotel interiors were completely gutted and the ground levels were converted to stores, while the rest of the building was rebuilt as an office building, with rents from $4 to $5 per square foot, approximately $60 per square foot in 2013.