The Real Deal New York

From the January issue: A few years ago, the prolific McSam Hotel Group opened a Days Inn in Sunset Park, the Brooklyn neighborhood south of Park Slope and north of Bay Ridge. At the time, it seemed like a new day was dawning for hotels in the area. The hotel’s location — on 39th Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues — is close to Sunset Park’s long stretches of rowhouses and commercial properties. The 43-room hotel is also a block and a half from the Gowanus Expressway, which runs over Third Avenue. Now, five other hotels, most in the border zone between Sunset Park’s industrial and residential sections, are planned or in some stage of development nearby. Like the Days Inn, most of the planned hotels will be economy lodgings. However, the trend toward hotel development is unlikely to proceed past the properties that are already in development. For one, financing for hotel construction has been almost impossible to obtain as the credit crunch has worsened. In addition, the McSam Group fears Brooklyn will soon see a glut of hotels.