Other structures include a U-shaped (former) retail court at its northern end, which was altered in the mid 1980s with a new five-level office complex 'piggybacked' on its eastern side that once housed Travelers Insurance Company's Training Center, which is now vacant. At first, it contained such upmarket specialty stores as Brentano's bookstore, Peck & Peck, and a branch of W & J Sloane furniture. Also built was a 12-story, 300-room hotel that originally opened as Hotel America in April 1964. The hotel was later operated for almost twenty years as an upscale Sonesta Hotel property, then finally as a Clarion hotel before closing in the mid-1990s. The property was then owned by an investment group tied to religious order, several recent renovation attempts have been thwarted, due in large part to the high asking sale price for the property. After sitting empty for nearly a decade, the building reopened as luxury apartments known as Spectra in 2015.
