180 Orchard Street (credit: PropertyShark)

Demolition at 180 Orchard Street between East Houston and Stanton streets is now underway, making room for the Indigo Hotel, Bowery Boogie reported. Currently, the site contains an incomplete two-story building, which is being dismantled by remote-controlled demolition robots, Department of Buildings records indicate. [more]

A rendering of the Courtyard by Marriott in Newark

A Courtyard by Marriott is opening today in Newark, marking the first hotel opening in the city’s downtown area in more than a decade.

The 150-room, $35 million project increases the number of hotel rooms in the business district of New Jersey’s largest city by more than a third, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Courtyard won’t be the city’s only new hotel, either: Developers are converting a nearby bank building into a boutique Hotel Indigo and another major hotel operator is looking to establish a franchise in the city as well, the Journal reported. [more]

From left: Lam Group founder John Lam and the Hotel 718

With new ownership comes a new plan for Hotel 718 in Downtown Brooklyn.

Brownstoner reported that the hotel, purchased by the Lam Group for $31 million earlier this year, will now operate as part of the Hotel Indigo boutique brand and have a soft opening of Aug. 1. [more]

From left: Morris Moinian of Fortuna Realty Group and a rendering of the Soho hotel at 525 Greenwich Street

Developer Morris Moinian of Fortuna Realty Group is partnering with his 28-year-old nephew and son of developer Joseph Moinain, Matthew Moinian, to transform a vacant lot at 525 Greenwich Street in Soho into a $60 million hotel, he told The Real Deal today. Construction will begin on the project before the end of the year, he said.

Matthew, who recently graduated from law school, has not joined the family business but is rather investing in the project as an individual.

Fortuna, which bought the former parking garage site for $12.75 million at auction earlier this year, is in negotiations with various management systems to operate the hotel, Morris said, including the InterContinental brand, which operates Fortuna’s Hotel Indigo in Chelsea. … [more]

Just days after Brack Capital announced its intentions to bring a Hotel Indigo to the Lower East Side, word leaks that the firm’s other large Lower East Side parcel will be home to a 96,000-square-foot CitizenM hotel. Curbed reported that the site, 185-191 Bowery near Delancey Street, will be home to 315 “affordable” but “luxurious” rooms with wall-to-wall windows, LCD flatscreens, rainshowers and room lights that can change colors. According to Brack’s website, construction at the Bowery location is set to begin sometime before the summer. [Curbed]

Brack Capital Real Estate, the developer behind the James New York, the Olcott and 15 Union Square West, has just acquired the development site for its latest Manhattan project: a 290-room Hotel Indigo at 180 Orchard Street. The Lower East Side project, a joint venture with InterContinental Hotels Group, will also include retail and parking when it opens in 2013. BCRE and IHG paid $46 million for the site in an all-equity transaction, the partners announced today. Among the property’s planned features: a restaurant, bar, fitness center and outdoor pool. TRD… [more]

Hotel Indigo East End at 1830 West Main Street in Riverhead

Hotel Indigo opened its newest location, Hotel Indigo East End at 1830 West Main Street in Riverhead, near the Hamptons, Hotel Chatter reported. Indigo, which is part of the InterContinental brand, is owned by Jaral East End Hotel. Indigo East End is accepting reservations beginning Aug. 15, but it is open now for booking online. The color scheme of the 100-room hotel is inspired by its proximity to the beach, with shades of orange, sea powder and indigo blues, greens and gold. Oversized graphics depict nearby Wine Country and the beach, while the finishes, materials and fabrics have an organic, natural texture, and the wood is inspired by beach driftwood. The hotel’s restaurant, Bistro 72, will serve locally grown, organic ingredients and regional wines. Also on site are a fitness center, a pool, a business center and two meeting rooms. The guestrooms have oversized beds, hardwood floors, spa showers and free Internet. (Note: correction appended) [Hotel Chatter]

… [more]

Hotel Indigo East End at 1830 West Main Street in Riverhead

Hotel Indigo opened its newest location, Hotel Indigo East End at 1830 West Main Street in Riverhead, near the Hamptons, Hotel Chatter reported. Indigo, which is part of the InterContinental brand, is owned by Jaral East End Hotel. Indigo East End is accepting reservations beginning Aug. 15, but it is open now for booking online. The color scheme of the 100-room hotel is inspired by its proximity to the beach, with shades of orange, sea powder and indigo blues, greens and gold. Oversized graphics depict nearby Wine Country and the beach, while the finishes, materials and fabrics have an organic, natural texture, and the wood is inspired by beach driftwood. The hotel’s restaurant, Bistro 72, will serve locally grown, organic ingredients and regional wines. Also on site are a fitness center, a pool, a business center and two meeting rooms. The guestrooms have oversized beds, hardwood floors, spa showers and free Internet. (Note: correction appended) [Hotel Chatter]

… [more]

Morris Moinian at The Real Deal’s offices

Hotel Indigo, the colorful 122-room newcomer to the Chelsea scene, may soon get a trio of siblings to the north, south and east.

Hotel owner Morris Moinian, 48 — not to be confused with his older real estate developer brother, Joseph, 55 — unveiled the newly-constructed 127 West 28th Street hotel, part of the InterContinental brand, in October, and is now plotting three more Indigo-franchised hotels in Manhattan over the next three to four years, he told The Real Deal yesterday in an in-office interview.

Moinian is president and founder of Fortuna Realty Group, the private real estate company that developed the Dylan Hotel (sold to the HOTUSA Group and Losan Hotels World for $78 million in 2007) and has holdings in New York City, Florida, California and the Caribbean. The Iranian developer said he’s eyeing Tribeca-Soho, the Upper East Side, and Midtown, near Grand Central Terminal, for Indigo’s next landing spots. Ideally, the hotels will be built from the ground up, with 100 to 150 units apiece, he said…. [more]

Things are looking up for the New York City hotel industry, which is
celebrating a rebound in occupancy from earlier this year. Manhattan
was the only market in the country, besides New Orleans, to report a
double-digit occupancy, up 10.5 percent this year to 88.1 percent,
according to data from Smith Travel Research for the week ending Dec.
12. While hotel occupancy in Manhattan has risen dramatically from levels
as low as 55 percent, the average daily rate continues to be lower than
record levels achieved in 2007. Nevertheless, the increase in occupancy represents a significant
improvement to a market where more than 30 new hotels have opened
during the year. Many of these new limited-service and boutique hotels,
including Hotel Indigo, Ace Hotel and Crosby Street Hotel, have registered occupancy at nearly 90 percent. From a national perspective, travelers are going to have it good next year. … [more]