February 22, 2005
Hotels going condo can't keep pace with demand
Although New York City seems to be in a tourism boomtime with hotel openings and high occupancy rates, the city is actually losing more rooms than its gaining due to condo conversions, according to The Sun and Gotham Gazette. From The Sun: Hotels that have been turned into apartments in the past year include the 208-room Intercontinental Central Park South, which is being converted into 67 luxury co-op units; the Empire on West 63rd Street, which is being transformed into 125 condo units, and the Windsor, also with 125 units. Other hotels are converting just some of their rooms, such as the St. Regis, which is transforming more than 50 of its 315 rooms into residential condominiums and launching a $15 million renovation of the remaining rooms. The Plaza's plan to go condo is only the latest poke in the eye. Others, including The Mayflower, Helmsley Windsor, Delmonico, and Empire have been sold in recent years and will be at least partially converted into residential buildings, Gotham Gazette notes. As of August, Manhattan lost 970 hotel rooms as of August 2004, while gaining only 577, consulting firm PKF determined.
But with hotel occupancy rates at the highest level since 1969, the condo-conversion is more a symptom of the city's crazy demand for housing.
NYC&Co has a list of new New York hotels, and there are plenty more scheduled, including a Marriott in Harlem, an expansion of the Marriott in Brooklyn; Hampton Inn is opening locations in Midtown, Wall Street, and near La Guardia airport; Jason Pomeranc, who owns 60 Thompson in Soho, has a property planned for the Lower East Side; and Andre Balazs, the owner of The Mercer Hotel in Soho is planning two new Manhattan hotels.
In 1794, the City Hotel in lower Manhattan was the first building built in New York specifically as a hotel. Today, there are approximately 70,000 hotel rooms in the city, the most of any city in the country.
Earlier: Average rate for New York hotel room rises to $212
Hotel rates to jump 14 pct in NYC in 2005, study predicts
'Hip' hotel QT off Times Square to feature bunks, lobby pool
DeNiro moving along with plans for Tribeca hotel
Sheraton to build 'moderately-priced' SoHo hotel
After sale, Mayflower Hotel closes doors
February 22, 2005 08:48 AM in Hotelology
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