The Park Plaza's original owner, Sam Koplar, lost the hotel to foreclosure during the Great Depression and ended up taking a job next door as manager of the Chase.

GE closed the hotel rooms in the Park Plaza tower in 1985 and converted it at a cost of $12 million to an apartment building, which opened in 1988.

In 1989, with business declining, GE closed the hotel in the remaining Chase wing and auctioned off the building's contents in 1991.

[14][15] The Chase was also famous for hosting a wrestling program called Wrestling at the Chase (1959–1983),[16][17] produced and televised by KPLR-TV channel 11, whose operations were in the hotel and the adjoining Park Plaza apartments, all owned by Harold Koplar, Sam Koplar's son.

Many famous wrestlers, including St. Louis native Lou Thesz and Buddy Rogers, wrestled on the program.