Hotel room inventory skyrockets

New York’s rapidly expanding inventory of hotel rooms is continuing to grow, the Post reported, making developers increasingly dependent on the tourist trade.

In the last decade, the number of hotel rooms in Manhattan has increased by more than 27 percent to 78,347 in 2011, from 61,464 in 2000, said Tom McConnell, head of Cushman & Wakefield’s hospitality group. And that growth shows no sign of letting up. About 3,000 new rooms are in construction in Manhattan alone, including Extell Development’s Hyatt on West 57th Street and the Hyatt Times Square at 135 West 45th Street, and plans for others are afoot, he said.

Investment sales hotel values rocketed to $500,000 this year, compared with a record high of $600,000 per room in 2006 and a low of $175,000 in 2003, the Post said.

The “sea change,” McConnell said, has been brought about by a diversification in locations for hotels. “For decades, we didn’t have any substantive supply south of 42nd Street at all,” he said. [Post]