Steven Kamali

From the March issue: At night, the sidewalks around Steven Kamali’s office in the Meatpacking District teem with partygoers. The location seems appropriate for Kamali, whose hospitality firm helps launch restaurants and clubs in Manhattan’s trendiest neighborhoods. But his latest project is outside the familiar West Village and West Chelsea terrain: He’s searching for someone to run a supper club planned for Times Square’s Paramount Hotel. Work may take him Uptown, but don’t expect him to relocate anytime soon. “I don’t think I would get the same results for my business if it were in Midtown,” he said. Click here to see where Steven Kamali works.

If there’s a bright side to the national housing crisis, it’s in the luxury vacation rental industry. Indeed, many of the hardest hit real estate markets are showing the biggest uptick in vacation property listings intended as second homes, but which are now for rent, often as a means of economic survival. Despite the challenging economy, nearly two-thirds of vacation rental homeowners reported summer bookings were the same or higher than last year, according to a second-quarter report by HomeAway, a national vacation rental company headquartered in Austin, Texas. “There are a lot of people who extended themselves to buy vacation properties [who] never intended to rent them out, and now they find themselves in a position where renting makes financial sense,” said Brian Sharples, CEO of HomeAway. more

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A mortgage fraud report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation released yesterday shows an increase in mortgage fraud throughout 2008. Also, a second-quarter hospitality report from Marcus & Millichap shows more signs of distress in the national hotel sector. And, phase one of construction has been completed at Nehemiah Spring Creek Homes in East New York. Click here for the full version. TRD Comments

After four months of weakness in hotel occupancy, the outlook is getting brighter for the local hospitality industry. According to Smith Travel Research, the U.S. hotel industry posted
declines in the three key performance measurements during the week of
April 26 to May 2, 2009. Year-over-year, the room occupancy rate fell 11.6 percent to 55.7
percent in the week ending May 2. The average daily room rate dropped
8.6 percent to $99.41, the data shows. The revenue per available room,
or revpar, for the week decreased 19.1 percent to $55.53. [more]