There are close to 100 new hotels slated to open in major U.S. cities this year and 46 of them will be located in New York City, according to Smith Travel Research. The additions to the market — including five from Marriott under the Courtyard and Fairfield Inn brands and six from Starwood under the Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, W, Aloft and Element brands — are unlikely to help the existing nightly glut of unoccupied hotel rooms in many regions, but their seemingly poor timing may be mere coincidence, said Mark Lomanno, Smith Travel Research’s president.
A new hotel can take two to four years to plan and one to four years to construct, so most developers for this year’s hotels were taking their chances several years ago, when the economic outlook was much rosier, Lomanno said. Last week, Hyatt opened a 253-room Andaz hotel at 75 Wall Street. The company plans to open another Andaz on Fifth Avenue and 41st Street in June. Developers’ misfortune will probably benefit travelers by driving prices down and providing more choices, but only for a few years, travel experts said. Lomanno explained that while this year will be a big one for new hotels, there are few properties scheduled to come online between 2011 and 2013.

From the August issue: From one of the penthouse terraces at the Element, a condo on West 59th
Street a block and a half from the Hudson River, marketer Shlomi
Reuveni gives a bird’s eye tour of the changes to the surrounding area
over the past few years.
Immediately to the north, he points out, there’s the new condo 10
West End Avenue. Across the street, John Jay College is building a new
facility. A couple blocks north, the Extell Development Company has
broken ground on the latest buildings in its massive Riverside South
project. Further south, Fordham University is planning its expansion. The
surrounding blocks — which were largely industrial until a few years
ago — are dotted with several other new condos and rentals. [more]

Golfer Vijay Singh (left) has purchased a penthouse at 555 West 59th Street

Professional golfer Vijay Singh and his wife Ardena Seth have purchased
a $5.675 million penthouse condominium at 555 West 59th Street in
Lincoln Square. The 3,369-square-foot duplex unit in the newly constructed Element near
West End Avenue has four bedrooms and a wood-burning stove and was
listed in June at $6.9 million by Brown Harris Stevens, according to
Streeteasy.com. The 46-year-old golfer signed a contract for the unit July 1 and
then closed on the sale July 23, according to city property records
posted today. The 34th- and 35th-floor apartment has views to the north, east and
south and includes a 1,463-square-foot terrace, the listing said.

[more]