Herald Square’s latest attraction: a glut of hotels

It’s the “Invasion of the Hotels” playing right now in Manhattan’s Herald Square.

Hotels have been quietly popping up in the popular tourist spot, while most of the locals have been looking up to watch the facelifts that  the square’s famous landmarks — Macy’s department store and the Empire State Building — are getting, the Wall Street Journal reported. Two examples: SpringHill Suites, at 35 West 37th Street, and the Courtyard by Marriott, at 71 West 35th Street. Rates at the hotels, both developed by Hidrock Realty,  average roughly $300 a night.

A 167-room Courtyard by Marriott opened last month, next door to a 298-room Hilton Garden Inn and a 146-room Hampton Inn, which arrived in 2009 and 2008, respectively.

In late May, a 94-room Best Western Premier, which was an office conversion, set up shop at 50 West 36th Street, next to a 135-room Holiday Inn Express and a 185-room Hyatt Place. Those two hotels opened earlier this year. A 173-room SpringHill Suites arrived in May as well. It sits between the 177-room Strand Hotel and a 92-room Fairfield Inn & Suites, the Journal said.

Developers told the Journal the decision to build hotels was driven in large part by regulations in Herald Square, which is largely not zoned for residential construction.

“You felt a hostile environment, but now tourists and shoppers feel more comfortable,” Dan Biederman of the 34th Street Partnership told the Journal. [WSJ] – Mark Maurer