Earlier this week, the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp requested proposals for a full-service hotel near Yankee Stadium, but according to the Wall Street Journal, that’s a dicey proposition.
Lending is already tight in the current market. But considering the risk of building a full-service, amenity-rich hotel in the Bronx, financing may be next to impossible to obtain for such a project.
Though new hotels have been sprouting in Brooklyn and Queens, the Bronx is different. Comments
From the August issue: During the boom, when no Manhattan neighborhood seemed vulnerable to the economy, hotel deals seemed to pop up on every corner of Manhattan — no matter how far-flung.
Now, though, as the market recovers, deal-making in Manhattan’s chief central business district — Midtown — has seen more hotel activity, and larger deals, than any other part of Manhattan, sources say.
The area — which stretches from 34th to 65th streets and river to river — has seen “a number of high-dollar-amount deals,” said John Fox, a hotel industry specialist at PKF Consulting.
A handful of these Midtown deals involve ground-up construction of new hotels, though most involve investors and developers snapping up older properties, including brands like the Algonquin and the Paramount, with the intention of renovating them.
Midtown’s hot streak has been partly fueled by hotel-focused real estate investment trusts. [more]
From the August issue: For all the unconventional housing arrangements people devise to afford living in New York City, the timeshare, historically, has not been one of them. There are just two timeshare-only buildings in all of Manhattan.
And, at first blush, the owners of those timeshares — at the 161-unit Hilton Grand Vacations Club on West 57th Street and the 300-unit Manhattan Club on West 56th Street — appear to be struggling.
Since opening in 2009, the Hilton Grand has seen 52 lis pendens, or pre-foreclosure filings, and six foreclosures among its timeshare owners. Meanwhile, the Manhattan Club has witnessed 17 lis pendens and 22 foreclosures since 2007, according to real estate data website PropertyShark. [more]
Host Hotels & Resorts said today that it closed on the $313.5 million sale of the New
York Helmsley Hotel, which will be reflagged under the Westin Hotels & Resorts brand
in mid-2012 after an extensive renovation. Host Hotels, based in Bethesda, Md., said it will renovate the hotel, at 212 East 42nd
Street, with a complete overhaul of its 775 guest rooms as well as a meeting
space upgrade. [more]
From the February issue: A year and a half ago, the New York City hotel industry was hurting badly, as tourists cut back on spending and business travelers stopped calling to book rooms.
But times have changed. Indeed, the industry, while not back to where it was at the market’s peak, has done a 180 and is now rebounding stronger and faster than most had expected.
This month, The Real Deal talked to hotel experts not only about the key metrics for evaluating hotel performance, but also about development, hotel sales and a host of other crucial industry markers. [more]
Midtown’s Paramount Hotel is set to hit the auction block, according to Crain’s. The hotel, located 235 West 46th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, is currently owned by Walton Street Capital and Highgate Holdings, the latter of which is expected to retain a stake in the building. The 597-room hotel is expected to draw numerous bidders. Although it was not immediately clear how much the hotel is expected to net at auction, hotel investors are increasingly interested in the New York City market, according to John Fox, a senior vice president at PKF Consulting. [more]
The Manhattan hotel occupancy rate rose in March this year compared with the same month last year even as supply increased, preliminary figures from hotel advisory firm PKF Consulting show.
The occupancy rate in Manhattan rose to an anticipated rate of 80 percent in March 2010 from 72 percent in March 2009, just below the 10-year average of 82 percent for the month, the company said.
The figures provide “some signs [the] bottom has been reached,” John Fox, senior vice president at PKF Consulting, said in an e-mail. “But [it is] too early to feel comfortable as last March was the overall biggest revenue decrease month since [the] 9/11 aftermath.” [more]
The bloodletting for Manhattan hotel operators did not end with 2009, preliminary figures covering January from industry analysis firm PKF Consulting reveal.
The average daily room rate fell in January by 8.8 percent compared with the same month last year to $192.96 per room, and the revenue per available room, or revpar, dipped by 3.6 percent to $125.71, data from PKF shows.
But on a bright note, the figures indicate that occupancy rates rose, to 65.1 percent last month from 61.6 percent in January 2009.
For all of 2009, revpar plunged by 25.8 percent from $264 per room to $196 per room, the PKF figures indicate.
At a panel on hospitality at the New York Real Estate Summit yesterday in Midtown, hotel executive Vijay Dandapani, president and COO of Apple Core Hotels, noted the year began poorly.
“We have seen a further depression in January,” he said. “I personally think 2010 will be flat.” [more]
From the October issue: Keeping heads in beds has not been easy for New York City’s hotel
industry in this economy. Not only are tourists cutting back on
expenses, but companies — including those that not too long ago
readily put up their employees at five-star hotels — are also
massively scaling back.
In this month’s Q & A, hotel experts and operators talked to The Real Deal about why the hospitality industry has fallen further here than it has nationally.
They said revenue per room, or RevPAR, is down between 20 and 30
percent and that the luxury hotel market (not surprisingly) is getting
crushed hardest.
Ian Schrager and 1414 Avenue of the AmericasHotel developer Ian Schrager plans to turn the current Class B office
tower 1414 Avenue of the Americas into a luxury hotel. Building owner
Norman Sturner said that through expiring leases, the building will be
virtually empty by 2010, when $100 million in development work could
start. The 18-story building, at 58th Street, was built as a hotel and
its penthouse roof deck is where rock group Kiss sometimes held
parties. Sturner and investor David Werner bought the building in 2007
for $120.5 million, and planned to empty it out for residential or
hotel development. But as room rates and hotel occupancy drop, does
the city need another hotel? “You can get a room, and on selected
nights get it for $100, and I never thought I’d see that rate again,”
said John Fox of PKF Consulting. “Given where the market is right now,
we probably don’t need [another hotel].” [more]
