New hotels are cropping up in unexpected places, according to the Wall Street Journal, in response to a growing demand for more affordable accommodations around Manhattan. Among the new hotels in the pipeline are a Yankee Stadium-adjacent Days Inn, a Crowne Plaza set for Long Island City and a Holiday Inn Express with a 2012 opening date in the Bronx. Joshua Muss, principal with Muss Development, said that, in the past, building full-service hotels outside Manhattan was “unthinkable.” Today, Muss said, areas like Downtown Brooklyn, where the MetroTech Center is a major draw, have numerous overnight options. “Who would have thought that at first there were no hotels [in the area] and now there are 30 within a mile or two?” Muss said. [WSJ]

[more]

The 106-year-old development firm struggles with one of the largest projects in NYC, but draws on its expertise in surviving recessions

Joshua Muss, president of Muss Development

From the May issue: It’s hard enough to sell an apartment these days in Manhattan. Try selling 448 of them in Queens — while trying to lease out 800,000 square feet of virgin retail space at the same time. That’s the challenge facing Muss Development, the 106-year-old, family-owned real estate company that usually does its own building, sales and management. Sky View Parc, the developer’s $1 billion, three-tower project in Flushing, has the dubious distinction of being one of the city’s largest mixed-used projects under construction during one of the worst real estate climates in generations. Located a couple blocks west of downtown Flushing’s epicenter on a 14-acre plot Muss purchased from Con Edison in 1983, the 3.3 million-square-foot venture seemed ambitious even back in the heady pre-crash days of early 2007. But with 421-a and other tax abatements as well as a city rezoning of the area, the groundbreaking seemed propitiously timed. And it provided Muss with a signature project that would transform the neighborhood.

[more]