Hotels

Developer Curtis Bashaw, who aimed to lure more New Yorkers to the Jersey Shore this past summer with the opening of his trendy Atlantic City hotel The Chelsea, has shelved his latest project, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Mr. Bashaw, the former executive director of New Jersey's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, had been planning a $1 billion casino tower with upscale retail, an opulent spa and convention meeting space, in partnership with former Caesars Entertainment Inc. CEO Wally Barr.  read more »

Travel site Newyorkology [via HotelChatter] is reporting that Chelsea's new Gem Hotel has opened this week at 300 West 22nd Street, offering introductory nightly rates starting at $189 -- a veritable steal during the city's usually pricey peak travel season.

Yet, a check of tonight's rates on Expedia.com shows a number of other lodges around town offering reduced rates as low or even lower than the new Gem, another potential indicator of softening demand for rooms in the city.  read more »

From The Real Deal: "Hotel developer Sam Chang of the McSam Hotel Group and a partner sold their newly opened Wyndham Garden Hotel Manhattan Chelsea West, for $39.06 million, according to property records published today. The 17-story hotel with 124 rooms opened last week at 37 West 24th Street, a hotel employee said."

For more Observer coverage on the prolific Mr. Chang, including another Chelsea hotel trade, click here.

One-time demolition target Hotel Pennsylvania continues to line landlord Steve Roth's pockets, giving him even more reason to hang on to the old McKim, Mead & White-designed lodge. Quarterly figures released this week by Mr. Roth's Vornado Realty Trust show the historic hotel generating even more revenue than last year -- a total of nearly $30 million so far through the first nine months of 2008.

That's about $5 million more than it made over the same timeframe in 2007, when the hotel ultimately netted $37.9 million.  read more »

Over lunch at Brasserie 44 last week, Fred Kleisner, CEO of Morgans Hotel Group, pledged to encourage his nearly 6,000 employees at the Royalton, Hudson and other boutique properties around the country to vote on election day.

"In a very nonpartisan way," insisted Mr. Kleisner, who was, nonetheless, proudly sporting his "Obama '08" bracelet.

He even promised to compensate workers for their time spent at the polls.

Sure enough, on Monday afternoon, Mr. Kleisner followed through with a seemingly unbiased e-mail directive to supervisors:  read more »

On the heels of Wednesday's Times article, CB Richard Ellis this afternoon released a special report on the cooling Manhattan hotel development market.

The report found at least 17 proposed hotel projects that have been shelved amid "increasing construction costs, tightening capital markets, and a lingering economic downturn." That's a loss of 3,225 rooms that were expected to open by the end of 2010.

"This represents an approximate 30 percent decrease from previous estimates cited in the marketplace," according to the report.

Still, between now and the end of 2010, 69 Manhattan hotels with 10,836 rooms are expected to open. And up to 30 new hotels offering 4,860 rooms are expected to open in 2009 alone.

From The Times: "The glassy Cooper Square Hotel near Astor Place will initially charge $275 a night when it opens next month with 85 of its 146 rooms completed — a steep discount from the $425 rate it had projected for the finished hotel. One of the developers, Matt Moss, said he can afford to wait out the downturn because less than 60 percent of the cost was financed. 'We have made a long-term commitment to this project, this neighborhood,' he said. 'We plan on being here for a long time. The cycle will come back.'"

More on the future of the city's hotels with hospitality expert John Fox in this week's print Observer.

From The Times: "Since mid-September, almost in parallel with the stock market turmoil, demand for fancy hotel rooms has plummeted. Patrick Ford, the president of Lodging Econometrics, said that luxury hotel room revenue rates 'slowed in mid-September and really ratcheted downward during October.' ... Even in the best of economic times, most luxury hotels were not sustained by business from rich leisure travelers. Instead, those hotels depended on corporate travel, including meetings and conferences. But with the economic downturn, companies have been cutting back on travel expenses. The hotels have also experienced a drop-off in business from affluent international leisure and business travelers, as economies around the globe slow and the value of the dollar rises."

The Times' Charles Bagli dropped this nugget of negativism on us over the weekend: "Until recently, tourism had been a bright spot in the city’s increasingly gloomy economic picture, fueled largely by foreign tourists taking advantage of a weak dollar. But many hotel operators have begun reporting that bookings for the next few months, traditionally the strongest part of the year, are falling below last year’s levels. Cancellations are also on the rise, and corporate travel executives are negotiating for steeper discounts on room contracts for 2009."

Is this the best time for all those new hotel rooms to be opening (as many as 37 in 2009)? Just askin'.  read more »

The Wall Street Journal's Laura Landro drops by for a review of the Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca, co-owned by none other than Bobby De Niro. Ms. Landro seems rather impressed by it all ("We gave high marks to the comfy Dux bed, the marble bath with its Moroccan tile floors, dual-head shower... and short but deep soaking tub, and the room's large high-definition TV... Our higher-end room was spacious by the standards of many downtown hotels with rooms the size of closet") but questions whether the timing of its debut, through no fault of the hotel's, was a little off.

It opened in April, just after the Bear Stearns collapse and a few months before the financial calamity erupted next-door in the Financial District.

On a recent midweek evening amid the financial meltdown on Wall Street, things were a lot more sedate, with few guests in evidence. Now, with the threat of global recession, it may be tough to attract the foreign visitors and expense-account clientele that have made New York a boomtown for such high-end properties in recent years. The Greenwich's $6,500-a-night duplex suite and a still-unfinished 2,500-square-foot penthouse with a roof hot tub could be a tough sell.

GQ-crowned "Modern Hotel Maestro" Klaus Ortlieb hosted roughly 60 guests at his Tribeca loft on Wednesday night in a preview of the yet-unfinished Cooper Square Hotel's culinary offerings.

Mr. Ortlieb, 50, a partner in the hotel's management company, MK Hotels, suggested the somewhat divisive 21-story, 145-room, Carlos Zapata-designed lodge may be just weeks away from opening.

Among other permitting issues, developer Matt Moss, who was also on hand for the festivities, said he was still trying to obtain a certificate of occupancy. (Mr. Moss' original partner in the project, Crescent Hotel developer Gregory Peck, did not attend.)

Los Angeles-based chef Govind Armstrong commandeered Mr. Ortlieb's kitchen and home office for the fete, serving up samples of porterhouse, squab and a creamy celery soup with strips of bacon.

The hotel's forthcoming Table 8 restaurant will be Mr. Armstrong's third location after L.A. and Miami.

An upstart innkeeper on trendy Smith Street is facing off with transit officials over the decision to put a bus stop right in front of his hotel's entrance.

Bertrand Nelson, general manager of Hersha Hospitality Trust's newly opened Nu Hotel, tells The Brooklyn Paper that his lobby is filling up with bus fumes and that bus riders are fouling up the hotel's restrooms.

“It’s a weird place for a bus stop,” [Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Joe] Chan told The Brooklyn Paper at the Nu Hotel’s opening party last month. “For a guest’s first experience [to be] inhaling a bunch of bus fumes — it’s less than an ideal way for them to experience a morning in Downtown Brooklyn.  read more »

MTV is sponsoring a contest to promote the upcoming action film Max Payne starring Mark Wahlberg--and talk about the perfect setting for a gritty cop-movie gimmick!

"To celebrate the release of this slick new thriller, MTV is giving one lucky winner and a friend an NYPD trip to New York City. You’ll get flights, two-nights accommodation at the luxurious Hotel Pennsylvania..."

What, you were expecting the posh Hotel Carter?

Now, MTV wasn't around during the Swing Era, but has Kurt Loder and company bothered to peek inside the old Glenn Miller hangout recently?

(Read The Observer's extensive coverage here.)

"Save The Hotel" activist Gregory Jones once took issue with my use of the term "fleabag" to describe the dowdy would-be landmark on Seventh Avenue.

But, come on, luxurious?

The city is expecting about 400,000 fewer out-of-town visitors than originally anticipated this year, in light of the recent financial crisis.

Revised projections released today by the city's tourism office, NYC & Company, estimate a total of 47.3 million people traveling to New York in 2008 -- still, about 2.8 percent more than in 2007. The original forecast estimated about 47.7 million tourists.

Nearly 46 million visitors came to New York in 2007, according to the agency.

Prior to the economic downtown, the city had experienced a 10 percent increase in international travelers over the first six months of 2008.

So much for hitting the brakes.

Sam Chang, New York's hotelier for the common man, strikes again.

This week he filed an application with the Buildings Department to build a 25-story hotel at 54 West 36th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, near Herald Square.

This will, of course, be the gazillionth hotel Mr. Chang has built in New York over the past few years - a pace The Real Deal in December 2006 dubbed "dizzying":

Christyne Nicholas, the city's tourism czar, estimated that Chang is building 3,000 out of the 5,000 rooms under construction in the city. An analysis by The Real Deal that looked at Chang's longer-term plans through 2008 found even more units in the pipeline -- some 5,900 units out of approximately 13,000 units planned in the city.

 read more »

So much for the hotel boom.

The AP is reporting that shares of hospitality companies are tanking amid a gloomy outlook for travel in 2009.

New York-based companies Morgans Hotel Group and Starwood Hotel & Resorts were among those with the steepest declines during the Dow's overall 777-point freefall on Monday:

Starwood shares dropped $3.39, or 11.2 percent, to $26.88 in afternoon trading, after touching a 5-year low of $25.95 earlier in the session. Morgans Hotel shares lost $1.61, or 12.9 percent, to $10.83.

How will the financial crisis impact the city's ever-higher tourism projections? Will less demand for rooms trigger a drop in skyrocketing hotel rates?

Stay tuned.

New York City hotels last month benefited from the highest average occupancy rate in four years, according to the latest figures from NYC & Company.

The city's tourism office reported an average occupancy rate of 92.4 percent in August. The average daily rate edged upward about a buck from July to $285.84.

That's $20 higher than in August 2007, but still about $40 less than this past June, when a typical night cost $325.94.

Hotel rates should only increase over the next several months, as the city's various lodges hit peak travel season.

Last September, the average overnight stay cost $340.33. Rates last November and December hovered around $370.

What a great week to launch a new restaurant in the Financial District!

“We’re all nervous about what’s happening with the economy, but we’ve got to charge through it,” said chef Todd English, dressed like an urban Johnny Cash in all black, as he celebrated the opening of his latest eatery, Libertine, at the Gild Hall hotel on Gold Street on Wednesday night.

“There’s no right time or wrong time to open a place like this,” added hotelier Jason Pomeranc. “It is our duty as hoteliers and restaurateurs to provide the inns and watering holes where people can celebrate their victories and mourn their losses.  read more »

The Real Deal checks in with Robert De Niro this month. Here's how the greatest living actor got into New York real estate:

Robert De Niro's real estate empire started in the 1980s, when the actor was living Downtown near Drew Nieporent's restaurant Montrachet. To hear the celebrity restaurateur tell it, De Niro would come in and "sit at the last table with his back to the restaurant," to preserve his anonymity.

 read more »

I have yet to stay a night at The Jane -- Bowery Hotel honchos Eric Goode and Sean MacPherson's trendy makeover of the old downtrodden Hotel Riverview at 113 Jane Street.

But industry blog Hotel Chatter recently checked in and came away with this video-enhanced report on its tiny, 50-square-foot rooms, its "baked-in aroma" of body odors, its noisy A/C units, and its strange interactions between overnight guests and the low-rent SRO tenants that the new guys in charge just can't seem to get rid of:

When you plod down the hallway for a middle-of-the-night pee, The Jane takes on a sort of dorm-like air, except that your neighbor isn't the star of your school's rugby team but some old guy in his boxers watching The Simpsons with his door cracked.

Still, only $99 a night--whatta bargain!

Take that, Sam Chang!

A budget Madison Avenue hotel (dubbed, appropriately enough, Madison Hotel), has traded for a cool $32 million, according to city records uploaded today.

The hotel, at 62 Madison Avenue, rents out single rooms, with bath and shower and AC, for just $138 dollars a night, doubles for $150.65, and "family rooms" for $163.30.

The buyer, an entity called Madison Hotel LLC, closed on the 11-story building on Aug. 28.

The Federal Reserve released on Wednesday its every-six-weeks anecdotal take on the national economy called The Beige Book. Here's a grab-bag of ultimately meh numbers for New York City:

• Broadway theaters report that business "improved moderately" in July and early August compared to the six weeks before. Attendance and ticket revenues increased 1 to 2 percent annually in July and 3 percent in the first half of August.
• Average Manhattan apartment asking rents declined 2 to 4 percent in July and August compared to the same months last year (more on falling rents here). And: "The rental vacancy rate, though still below 2 percent, is reported to have climbed noticeably over the past year."
• More home sales are falling through due to tighter financing. The sales markets in Brooklyn and Queens were worse for sellers than in Manhattan.
• The number of construction permits issued in June for multi-family buildings was four times greater than in the same month in 2007. And the first half of 2008 saw 63 percent more multi-family building permits issued than the first half of 2007.

 read more »

From Crain's:

Despite the drop in business from Wall Street firms, New York hotel bookings are strong this summer. But hoteliers are worried that their industry will take a big hit next year if the economy worsens.

Local hotels’ key corporate account business has weakened considerably in 2008, with a 15%-25% reduction in bookings from Wall Street firms, notes Sean Hennessey, chief executive of Lodging Investment Advisors.

"Holy shit. As a resident of the greater AC region--and as someone who is a bit ambivalent about the fact that I'm from here--all I can say is fuck off, douchebags. Whatever inherent (albeit at times ironic) charm Atlantic City might offer doesn't need to be helped along by any hipster dilettantes. You're the reason I stay here instead of moving to Philly or Brooklyn. Seriously, YOU RUIN EVERYTHING! A Minor Threat Lacoste shirt? C'mon. . ." ["Beatrice by the Beach"]

Vornado Realty Trust isn't hell-bent on demolishing the historic Hotel Pennsylvania, anymore -- but it's putting the paperwork in place, just in case.

Vornado recently applied for a Certification of No Harassment from the city, which, if granted, would by no means guarantee demolition but is apparently a prerequisite for tearing down the semi-grungy hotel across from Penn Station.

Vornado, which owns that site and many others in the area, hasn't made up its mind on what to do with the hotel (at least not publicly), and last word was that the company would do one of three things: put a giant office tower in its place, put a smaller office tower in its place with large retail, or simply spruce up the hotel.  read more »

New data from the city's tourism agency, NYC & Company, indicates that nightly hotel rates shot up to $350 on average in May. That's an increase of $50 from the same time last year.

Suddenly, the current minimum $249 nightly rate at the dumpy Hotel Pennsylvania (pictured right) doesn't seem quite so steep.

Tonight, according to Expedia.com, you can also stay at the Paramount, Hilton, New Yorker and Roosevelt hotels for less than $300.

Book now!

The literary landmark Algonquin Hotel hosted a feline fashion show and birthday party on Thursday in honor of Matilda, the famous inn's finicky house cat, now 13.

"I hope we get to see the cat's pajamas," quipped one quick-witted attendee, as guests sipped $20 purr-tinis while cooing at the various costumed kitties in the hotel's famed Round Table Room.

But something was missing. "We can't find Matilda," an organizer confessed.

The resident blue-eyed Ragdoll -- who was rumored to have been hiding out in the hotel's Blue Bar -- will just have to get used to having other critters around.

The splashy celebration, which benefitted the North Shore Animal League, also marked the beginning of a new pet-friendly policy at the Algonquin, which had previously prohibited guests from checking in their own animals.  read more »

Former Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson is the latest celeb to attach her name to an eco-friendly hotel in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. In June, Ms. Anderson visited Abu Dhabi with the Make a Wish Foundation and reportedly "fell in love" with the emirate, prompting her to partner with the royal family on what she described as an "environmentally friendly" hotel.

Whether the PETA spokeswoman will be as vocal about workers' rights as she has been about animals' in the past is still unclear, but so far none of the celebs who've done licensing deals in the Gulf have been vocal about the chronic mistreatment of construction workers there.  read more »

Today marked the ceremonial ribbon-cutting of the hugely hyped Chelsea hotel in Atlantic City.

Hotelier Curtis Bashaw recently sat down with The Observer to discuss the $110 million project, which aims to lure more young, hip New Yorkers to South Jersey's gritty gaming town and otherwise restore some of the ancient seaside destination's long-lost glamour.

"We do a lot of real estate projects -- we've done ground-up buildings in the city and all sorts of other stuff -- but these hotel renovation projects are among the most challenging and rewarding and pleasurable projects," said Mr. Bashaw, 48, who, alongside his Cape Advisors partner Craig Wood, has combined an old Howard Johnson and Holiday Inn into a single 330-room boutique hotel on the boardwalk.  read more »

Smith Street, Brooklyn's restaurant Mecca, has at long last scored its first boutique hotel, and the hotel's operators sure do know their audience.

Hersha Hospitality's Nu Hotel, at the corner of Smith Street and Atlantic Avenue, hits nearly ever single gruppy note.

Is it eco-friendly? Check. The press release boasts that the hotel has cork flooring, organic linens, and "custom furnishings crafted from FSC-certified, sustainably harvested teak wood."

Is it "Brooklyn" enough? Check. As per the release, "Whimsical references such as stenciled quotes from famous Brooklynites, 'found objects' from local landmarks and other daring local art strive to echo the authentic, confident character of Brooklyn.  read more »

The esteemed and embattled Chelsea Hotel has yet another new manager.

Hotel blog Living With Legends has the scoop that former Hard Rock Hotel boss Andrew Tilley is taking over today, becoming the hallowed Bohemian enclave's third manager in just over a year.

Mr. Tilley replaces former corporate manager BD NY Hotels, the Richard Born and Ira Drukier-led outfit fired this past April after just 10 tumultous months in charge.

The previous manager, legendary hotelier Stanley Bard, had overseen the hotel's operations for nearly 50 years before his controversial dismissal last summer.

On Monday night, the Trump Organization threw a lavish party in Midtown to celebrate the launch of its new Trump International Hotel & Tower in Dubai.

I wanted to know: How does the booming hotel market in Dubai compare to that of New York?

The dapper Donald Trump Jr. replied, "The high-end suites over there would be very comparable to the best you have in New York, and vice versa."

Fair enough. But what about bedbugs? Is the high-end Arab lodging scene just as prone to the nasty blood-sucking insects as the inns of Manhattan?

"Not that I’m aware of," the younger Trump said.  read more »

Broadway theaters report that both attendance and reveneus dropped more than 10 percent from April 2007 to April 2008, according to the Federal Reserve's latest Beige Book. Attendance and revenues were down 3 percent annually in May, too.

Also, another tourist-dependent industry seems to have taken a mild hit recently. The Fed reports that Manhattan hotel room rates were up 7.5 percent in April from the same month last year and total revenues for hotels were up 6 percent during the same period. But! These are the smallest annual increases in more than two years.  read more »

Activists targeted hotelier Hank Freid last week as the focal point for their campaign against illegal hotel conversions citywide, calling the much-maligned developer a "scamlord" and picketing his Broadway Hotel this past Saturday.

Mr. Freid's lawyer chimed in this week to make a point -- those hotels aren't actually illegal:  read more »

It's been years since the famous Chelsea Hotel opened up its Grand Ballroom. On Friday, the doors will finally be unlocked for an exhibit of more than 100 photographs taken at or inspired by the 125-year-old artistic enclave.

The show, curated by Chelsea resident and photographer Linda Troeller with the help of hotel co-owner (and rumored interim manager) David Elder, opens May 9 and runs through Sunday, May 11, from noon to 6 p.m.

The exhibition comes at a pivotal time for the iconic-yet-embattled lodge, which saw its second management shakeup in less than a year last week.  read more »

Activists plan to rally at noon on Saturday outside controversial hotelier Hank Freid's Broadway Studios on the Upper West Side to "denounce the continued operation of illegal hotels" by "scamlords" citywide.

"We are targeting Hank Freid as an egregious illegal hotelier ... with a particularly insidious past," organizer Yarrow Willman-Cole told The Observer.

Mr. Freid earned the dubious distinction as one of New York City's "Worst Landlords" after contracting with the government to provide housing for homeless persons living with HIV/AIDS at his hotels amid hard economic times, then evicting those tenants to make way for upcale renovations once the economy rebounded.  read more »

BD NY Hotels, the Richard Born and Ira Drukier-led outfit hired last year to replace eccentric longtime Chelsea Hotel manager Stanley Bard, has filed for arbitration after being fired by the hotel's governing board for "willful misconduct."

The controversial management team, which installed a rookie, 26-year-old Glennon Travis in the place of the veteran manager, Mr. Bard, has claimed in court papers that it has "fully performed its obligations" under a three-year contract, signed last June, and further asserted that the hotel was more profitable on its watch than when Mr. Bard ran the place.  read more »

Rumors have been circulating for days about the looming departure of Glennon Travis, controversial manager of the embattled Chelsea Hotel.  read more »