Hotels

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 »

Hunkier-than-thou hotelier Andre Balazs has closed on the sale of Hotel QT for a handsome $82 million.

The deal appeared in public records today, though Crain's New York apparently broke the news, with nary a splash, last week.  read more »

It's budget chic in Chinatown!

Developer Derek Law will build a 12-story, 43-room "boutique-style hotel" on Allen Street, between Canal and Division streets, with plans to welcome guests in 2010.

Mr. Law, who submitted the permit to the Buildings Department today, has built one another hotel, a Howard Johnson in Flushing, Queens.

"We are going to emphasize the décor of the rooms and our guest service," said Mr. Law, of the yet-unnamed Chinatown inn.

Mr. Law said that high-end service won't come with a Penninsula-size price tag: "It will be like economy or mid-market."  read more »

Hotelier to the masses Sam Chang continues to retrench amidst market turmoil, selling a Financial District lot to Magna Hospitality for $60 million, according to a report in The Real Deal.  read more »

It’s too early to tell how many out-of-towners will come to the city for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit, but everyone from pedicab drivers to butchers are clamoring for a piece of the pope-tourism pie.

Though only 57,000 tickets are available for the pontiff’s mass at Yankee Stadium, the city’s official tourism company NYC & Co. is expecting “people from around the country, and international visitors, to come and experience the papal visit as well,” said agency spokesperson Tiffany Townsend.

In anticipation of the hordes, all kinds of businesses are whipping out pope-related products or deals to appeal to the devoutly Catholic. Or devoutly kitsch.  read more »

AM New York today examines the controversy surrounding Harlem's shuttered Victoria Theater:

Local developer Steve Williams of Danforth Development Partners, LLC, wants to transform the 1917 burlesque theater into a 30-story condo/hotel, cutting up the ornate 2, 400-seat theater into two mini-theaters while preserving the facade and parts of the lobby.

Neighborhood activists argue that the Thomas Lamb-designer theater shoud be restored to its original grandeur.  read more »

Hotelier Hank Freid can't live on Starbucks alone.

So he's installing a new Thai restaurant at his refurbished Marrakech Hotel at Broadway and 103rd Street.

Mr. Freid has enlisted the proprietors of pad-thai palaces Klong in East Village and Room Service in Chelsea to open a new 1,200-square-foot eatery called Sookk.

Meaning "happiness" in Thai, Sookk will specialize in cuisine inspired by the Yaowarat District, which is Bangkok's version of Chinatown, according to a press release.

“Sookk is in keeping with the unique and eclectic quality that the hotel is known for,” Mr. Freid said in a statement.

With Merrill Lynch staying put downtown and plans to redevelop Penn Station in flux, Vornado CEO Steven Roth may not know what to do with the Hotel Pennsylvania--a building the company once described as "a placeholder, sort of like a parking lot."

In the meantime, the historic lodge continues to make his company some big bucks--netting roughly $37.9 million last year.

That's $10.6 million more than in 2006, according to the company's latest filing with federal regulators, which further added, "This property continues to trend higher in 2008."

With revenues on the rise, does it still make sense to raze it?  read more »

Legendary hotelier Stanley Bard doesn't hang out in the lobby of his beloved Chelsea Hotel as often as he used to.

But, two weeks ago, the hotel's infamously ousted manager made a rare appearance, joining the director Milos Forman (himself a former hotel resident) for an on-camera interview smack-dab in the middle of the lobby.

"The new management comes running out of the back and is like, 'You can’t shoot that here!'" said the writer Ed Hamilton, a 13-year resident of the iconic lodge on West 23rd Street. "He tried to charge Stanley $600 to film in the lobby. Of course, Stanley wouldn't pay that."

Mr. Hamilton relayed the recent lobby incident during a panel discussion about the historic and embattled hotel last night at the Museum of the City of New York.

Mr. Hamilton, author of Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws of New York’s Rebel Mecca, interviewed Mr. Bard himself recently for a short video by fellow hotel resident and filmmaker Sam Bassett.

In the interview, played during the panel discussion, Mr. Bard took a few jabs at the hotel's controversial new managers.  read more »

Legendary hotelier Stanley Bard will deliver a videotaped "message of hope" tonight at the Museum of the City of New York.

Hear what the charismatic former manager of the embattled Chelsea Hotel has been up to since his controversial ouster last summer, what he thinks about the new management and ongoing eviction proceedings, as well as his vision for the future of the iconic 125-year-old lodge, of which he remains the majority owner.

Mr. Bard's remarks will follow a panel discussion with preservationist Edward Kirkland and writers Ed Hamilton, author of the 2007 book Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws of New York’s Rebel Mecca, and Sherill Tippins, author of the forthcoming Dream Palace: The Extraordinary Life of the Chelsea Hotel.

The event starts at 6:30.  read more »

It seems the control freaks running Robert De Niro's new Greenwich Hotel aren't only cracking down on camera-equipped spectators.

On opening day, management also kicked out a reviewer for the hospitality industry site Hotel Chatter, abruptly canceling her reservation.

And she wasn't even requesting a cheap press rate! To wit:

we had a room booked at the Greenwich Hotel tonight. Juliana was going to stay there. In fact, she was excited to stay there.

However, our credit card was flagged by the hotel, Focker style, and we were informed this weekend that we needed to agree not to publish any images that resulted from our hotel stay. Long story short, the hotel has an embargo on photos with some international publication with a long lead time, how archaic is that?

Voracious hotel developer Sam Chang has acquired yet another piece of Manhattan.

City records show that Mr. Chang's Great Neck, N.Y., company has paid $27 million for a building at 6-12 Water Street.

According to PropertyShark.com, the 21,000-square-foot building includes a two-story McDonald's -- quite appropriate for the McSam gang.

Prolific hotelier Sam Chang just keeps on a-wheelin' and a-dealin'.

One day, he's selling his unfinished Sheraton on Canal Street for $83.5 million, according to The Real Deal.

A few days later, he picks up a new site for $24 million, according to city records. Mr. Chang's latest acquisition, at 431 West 33rd Street, is, according to PropertyShark.com, a 7,000-square-foot parking lot.

Now, the voracious developer may not be known for his valet skills, but he did build a Holiday Inn Express.

One can only assume another McSam hotel is in the works. But which chain? Hilton? Comfort Inn? Candlewood Suites? Stay tuned.

Hotel Pennsylvania preservationist Gregory Jones recently received a Valentine's Day greeting from the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission--er, more of a Dear John letter, really.

The message, dated Feb. 14, reads: "At this time, the property does not appear to meet the criteria for designation and will not be recommended to the full commission for further consideration as a New York City landmark."

Yet, Mr. Jones, who has spearheaded efforts to save the old hotel from possible demolition, remains undaunted: "We won't take no for an answer," he told The Observer via e-mail. "We will continue to find a new way of saving this hotel with or without the [commission's] help."

Jonathan Tisch, your New York Giants just won the Super Bowl! What are you going to do now?

"It's time to move on," Mr. Tisch told the Times on Sunday, announcing that he's stepping down as chairman of NYC & Company, the city's tourism agency.

The 54-year-old co-owner of the Giants and CEO of the Loews Hotels chain, whose properties include the 353-room Regency at 540 Park Avenue, helped spearhead efforts to resuscitate the city's wounded tourism industry after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Besides winning the Super Bowl, Mr. Tisch can also boast of attaining an all-time-high annual tourism level of 46.3 million visitors in 2007.  read more »

New York's "build now brand later" hotel king, Sam Chang, has sold his Holiday Inn Express in Times Square for $42 million, according to city records--and the hotel has not even opened yet.  read more »

So much for "Schrager Hotels."

Contrary to a recent report by the New York Post, godfather of hip hotels Ian Schrager is not pulling a Donald Trump by naming his new chain of trendy inns after himself.

The brand will instead be called "Edition," according to an announcement Tuesday by Mr. Schrager and partner Bill Marriott.  read more »

Ravenous hotel developer Sam Chang continues to devour buildings in the Financial District.

Just a month ago, 99 Washington Street, site of Mr. Chang's forthcoming 350-room Holiday Inn, was still standing--albeit shrouded in a death-black curtain (pictured left).Over the past several weeks, crews have dismantled almost the entire building (right).

Next up to come down: 50 Trinity Place, just one block away, site of an unnamed 186-room McSam hotel. (The demolition permit was issued Jan. 12.)

Both hotels are scheduled for Mid 2009 opening.

"We didn't make the product -- the product made us," Ian Schrager told The Observer about becoming a famous hotelier.

What does the godfather of boutique hotels think of the latest wave of aspiring celebrity hoteliers, Robert De Niro, Giorgio Armani and Jay-Z?

"I think when people hear Jay-Z's name, they have a certain level of expectation of the kind of music they're going to hear. I don't think they have a lot of expectation about what kind of hotel they're going to get," he said.  read more »

A breakdown of the city's latest tourism estimates suggests that Britons (1.46 million), Canadians (880,000), and Germans (470,000) comprised the biggest crowds of international visitors to New York in 2007.

Numbers were up among all groups last year -- including the roughly 300,000 residents of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, weirdly categorized as "BeNeLux" -- except for one, the Japanese.  read more »

"We are incredibly grateful for the weak dollar," quipped George Fertitta, head of the city's tourism office NYC & Company.

Mr. Fertitta joined Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Lieber in crediting "beneficial exchange rates" for boosting tourism to record levels in 2007.

An estimated 46 million total travelers visited New York last year, contributing some $28 billion to the local economy, according to the city's latest projections, which officials presented at a press conference at Pier 88 on Sunday alongside the docked Queen Victoria cruise ship.  read more »

At least one preservation group is speaking up on behalf of the endangered Hotel Pennsylvania.

The Historic Districts Council (HDC) has formally asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission to hold a hearing on proposals to protect the old McKim, Mead & White-designed hotel, which owner Vornado Realty Trust has threatened to demolish.

   read more »

Manhattan has the nation's tightest and most expensive hotel market. On any given night now, over 80 percent of the borough's hotel rooms are booked at nightly rates averaging well over $200.

But, as The Observer's John Koblin reports for our sister blog Media Mob, New Hampshire's hotels are now, however briefly, probably the nation's most expensive and most difficult to book.  read more »

Sam Chang is at it again!

According to public records, the voracious developer has snatched up yet another plot of land, this time in Hell's Kitchen, paying $6.6 million for the current Pace Auto Parts Inc., building at 548 West 48th Street.

What will become of the lot?

Another hotel?

Condominiums?

A condo-hotel?

Stay tuned.

As the only hotel in Manhattan with its own "curator," it is perhaps fitting that The Mark has published a set of Tashcen-esque glossy coffeetable books "introducing" the newly designed, landmark Upper East Side hotel-turned-condo.

Such an expensive marketing blitz calls into question the media hype surrounding The Mark's renovation and the bullish projections about future condo sales there from the Alexico Group, the firm managing the conversion.  read more »

Lodging blog Hotel Chatter today has compiled a preview of the "most buzzworthy" hotel openings for 2008 and discusses each one's chances for actually opening on time.

Among them: The Cooper Square Hotel near Astor Place, slated to open this coming spring. Given neighborhood concerns and "rumored falling out between developers/hoteliers Gregory Peck and Matthew Moss," the oddsmakers expect delays until August.

   read more »

Today's New York Sun examines the potential side-effects of the city's ongoing hotel boom.

Between 13,000 to 18,000 new and renovated rooms are expected in the coming years, which sounds great for consumers but some proprietors aren't so stoked.

Hotelier Richard Born, who is quoted at length, foresees a lot of doom and gloom with the boom, declaring, "There will be a lot of pain."  read more »

The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel has traded hands as part of one of the biggest property deals in New York City in 2007.

The Shareholders of Hilton Hotels Corporation turned over the hotel at 301 Park Avenue to BH Hotels LLC for $572,343,007, according to real property transfer tax records entered with the city on Nov. 21. Hilton also sold the Hilton New York at 1335 Avenue of the Americas for $757,804,148 and two contiguous lots at 102-108 West 57th Street for $68,989,066.  read more »

As if those nostaglic Glenn Miller-minded preservationists didn't have an uphill battle already!  read more »

Lost City, a blog chronicling the carnage wrought by New York's "ruthless real estate market," has nothing but praise for the planned redevelopment of midtown's Donnell library.  read more »

A state Supreme Court justice has barred three single-room-occupancy apartment buildings on the Upper West Side from acting as hotels for tourists.

City Room reports that the Continental at 330 West 95th Street, the Montroyal at 315 West 94th Street, and the Pennington at 316 West 95th Street must stop accepting any new reservations. Also, all the units must be filled by permanent SRO tenants by Jan. 8.

Prolific hotelier Sam Chang has sold a lot at 121 West 28th Street to a North Carolina-based firm for $55 million, according to city records.

The Chelsea lot is zoned for hotel construction, according to PropertyShark.com. We have a call out to buyer Inland American Winston Hotels. According to the company's Web site, it already has two hotels in New York State, but none in the city; one in Albany is a Hilton Garden Inn and one in White Plains is a Hampton Inn.

The Post's Braden Keil reports today that British hotel scion Rocco Forte is scouting locations for a new luxury lodge in Manhattan (though no specific sites are named).

The plan would add another 150 rooms to the city's burgeoning hotel inventory, which is expected to include some 13,000 new and renovated units by 2010.

Sir Forte was once a hospitality industry titan, overseeing more than 800 hotels -- including Manhattan's Plaza Athenee -- as well as some 1,000 restaurants worldwide. That is, until a hostile takeover in 1996 stripped him of everything. (Save for around 350 million quid.)

In recent years, the resurgent hotelier has been rebuilding his portfolio, with plans to open new locations in Prague, Sicily and Marrakech.

Both the Times and Post are following up today on financial giant Merrill Lynch's potential interest in moving to the current Hotel Pennsylvania site.

According to the Post's Lois Weiss: "Merrill Lynch execs would prefer to be at Vornado Realty Trust's [hotel site]" as opposed to Larry Silverstein's forthcoming World Trade Center redevelopment.

"What Larry [Silverstein] has decked up financially is not superior to [Vornado's] Hotel Pennsylvania, and it's not big enough," our source said.

That statement somewhat contradicts what Merrill Lynch sources told Ms. Weiss just a month ago, when they complained the hotel property was "not attractive enough to employees."

"They can't make up their minds," hotel preservationist Gregory Jones told The Observer.  read more »

Looking out at the southwest corner of Central Park, the crowd at Jean-Georges yesterday was mostly made up of champagne-sipping journalists and Trump Organization executives, patiently awaiting the man of the hour and his three oldest children.

Unfortunately, Eric Trump couldn't make it—he's in Mexico on official Trump business—but the beautiful Ivanka, clad in black and white with sparkling peep-toe pumps, and her brother Don Jr. were there to announce the big news: New York has become too small a playground for these growing Trumps. With Pappa Trump's approving nod, the children announced the expansion of the Trump Hotel Collection into the rest of the world.

Whether the rest of the world is ready or not.  read more »

Leona Helmsley died of heart failure today at her Greenwich, Conn., summer home at age 87, according to her longtime publicist Howard Rubenstein.

Helmsley and her husband Harry, whom she married in 1972, amassed a New York City real estate empire that eventually included the Empire State Building, Tudor City and 230 Park Avenue. She would also supervise the development of the Park Lane Hotel, the New York Helmsley Hotel and the Helmsley Palace Hotel. The family's holdings also would include the Helmsley Middletowne Hotel and the Helmsley Carlton House.

But never mind all that. It was a former housekeeper who decided Helmsley's fate during her 1989 trial for tax evasion.  read more »

Luxury lodging is coming to Harlem.

Paul Reisman of New Jersey-based Reisman Properties recently told The Observer that his company is breaking ground in August on a hotel on 125th Street.

“The hotel will run along Fifth Avenue from 125th to 126th Street,” Mr. Reisman said.

Although a flag has yet to be picked for the property, Mr. Reisman said that a number of very high-end chains are in the running. “Right now, who we go with is an open question,” he said. “But we are narrowing it down.”  read more »

Westbrook Partners has purchased the Paramount Hotel on 46th Street near Eighth Avenue for $152 million, according to both real property transfer tax and real estate transfer tax forms.

The New York Post reported in May that the building had been sold to Walton Street Capital, an investment fund in Chicago.

Now, it seems that there was a hidden partner in this deal. Walton Street Capital and Westbrook didn't return calls for comment.

The hotel is located at 235 West 46th Street and was slated for a conversion into a Hard Rock Hotel, which was the seller in this deal. The Post reported that now that the hotel has traded hands, it will likely remain as the Paramount, where, as its Web site lists, "Rooms start from just $249!"

John and Dan Tishman appear to be making way for their second Manhattan hotel. Tishman Realty & Construction recently closed on five properties just west of Times Square for $128 million, according to city records. The hotel and construction magnate purchased the properties under the name West 44th Street Hotel LLC, a hint perhaps that yet another hotel will be developed in Manhattan.

A spokesman for Tishman Realty confirmed the sale, but demurred on confirming development plans. “A venture led by Tishman Realty affiliates has purchased a 30,000-square-foot parcel of land on the southwest corner of Eighth Avenue and West 44th Street in Manhattan,” the spokesman wrote in an email to The Observer. “We are currently exploring development options and will announce details in the future."  read more »

Can anyone in the New York City hotel business