From left: Robert Toshi Chan and the Flatiron Hotel and Carlos Couturier,
CEO of Grupo Habita, which owns the Hotel Americano

Management companies, private equity firms and hedge funds are building hotels at a rate unimaginable during the recession, and they’re not wasting any time building them. While some new hotels construction may continue into 2012, more than half of the new hotels slated to be completed in New York in 2011 have already opened their doors, Hotel Chatter reported.

The most recent additions to the newly opened list include Robert “Toshi” Chan’s Flatiron Hotel at 1141 Broadway, which, after much back and forth between Chan and creditor Long Island bank, finally opened in late August; the Enrique Norton-designed Hotel Americano at 518 West 27th Street, which opened in September after multiple delays; and the Nolitan, at 30 Kenmare Street, which opened in July after being delayed nine times. [more]

From left: the Redbury in Hollywood and a rendering of the Nolitan

The Redbury Hotel, a luxury Hollywood hotel managed by sbe Hotel Collection, is expanding to South Beach, Fla. next March and has announced plans for a third location in Soho, according to HotelChatter (note: correction appended). Meanwhile, the site also reported that the Nolitan hotel on Kenmare and Elizabeth streets is delaying its opening for a ninth time. The hotel is canceling existing reservations and is first showing availability for June 1. The Nolitan has endured troubles for more than a year, first by violating zoning code in January 2010 and then with repeated delays pushing back the May 2010 opening date it initially announced. Once open, the Nolitan will contribute to the gentrification along Kenmare Street, as reported by The Real Deal earlier this year. [HotelChatter] and [HotelChatter] [more]

The Nolitan, a 60-room hotel going up in Little Italy’s historic district, is too tall for the neighborhood, according to a Department of Buildings letter issued Jan. 19. The nine-story hotel on the corner of Kenmare and Elizabeth streets is in a zone that only allows for eight floors, or 85 feet. Neighbors complained about unsafe conditions at the construction site last summer, after which the DOB issued a stop-work order. The order led to an audit of the hotel, which found that the developer, Veracity Development, hadn’t counted the ground floor as one of the building’s levels when it said it was building an eight-story hotel. Veracity appealed the decision, but the most recent letter confirmed that the building is, in fact, nine stories, not eight, “and therefore contrary to [the] Zoning Resolution.” The DOB’s decision is not final; the developer can appeal it through the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals.