Enticing travelers to eastern Brooklyn

Hotel developer Sam Patel sees East New York — historically one of the poorest, roughest, most crime-prone neighborhoods in the city — as an up-and-coming community. Patel is so confident that despite the recession, he’s building his second hotel in the neighborhood, and it’s creating buzz for both its unlikely location and for its unique design.

The 38-room boutique hotel, which broke ground in November, will run up construction costs of close to $4 million, which Patel estimates is at least $1.5 million more than what it would cost to build a more conventional, limited service hotel in the eastern Brooklyn neighborhood.

Patel expects the hotel to attract travelers flying in or out of nearby John F. Kennedy Airport; rooms will go for about $150 a night.

While the development was pre-approved for financing, Patel, who noted that he has “good relationships” with his banks, added he could end up financing part of the project out of his own pocket as a result of the tight credit environment. “The banks are pretty tough,” he said. “They want to look at everything.”

A spokesperson for the Community Board that includes East New York expressed skepticism when told of Patel’s plan.

Instead of hotels, the area could use more housing for senior citizens, said Walter Campbell, manager of Community Board 5.

“They just built two new hotels in the last couple of years,” Campbell said. “I really don’t see a demand … there are enough hotels in the district as it is.”

Patel said he intends to build a hotel that will stand out from the pack. A typical nondescript brick box was exactly what he did not want; he drove New York architect Drew Lang around the neighborhood to point out other hotels as examples of what he was not interested in building.

“I want to be different,” said Patel, a native of India who comes from a family of hotel and motel developers. “I wanted something unique. That was my dream, to build a hotel and build it nice.”

The project is rising on a relatively small 100-by-100-foot parcel in a mostly industrial area on Linden Boulevard at Essex Street.

From the outside, the hotel will look like a three-story building, but it’s actually on four and a half floors. Lang designed it with one and a half floors below ground to make up for the limited space.

Inside, a central atrium with skylights will extend through the building. The atrium will make the space feel larger and add interest to the design, Lang said. Outside, interlocking polycarbonate panels, stucco, clear glass and metal mesh will make up the façade, creating a contemporary look. Guest rooms will be appointed with flat-screen TVs, and an area for serving continental breakfast will be included on the lowest level.

The project is Lang’s first hotel, and first project in East New York.

“I had never heard of East New York,” said Lang, whose firm specializes in residential and office renovation projects in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Patel was familiar with the area from his work developing a hotel not far from the one under construction. East New York has come a long way in recent years, he said.

“I’ve been in the area since 1989,” said Patel, who has developed hotels in Brooklyn, Queens and Connecticut. “Before 1989, it was bad. In the last five years, I’ve seen tremendous change. There’s new commercial construction. The whole area you see on Linden Boulevard has changed dramatically. There’s much less crime than before.”

While the crime rate is still higher in East New York than in other city neighborhoods, the number of violent crimes has declined significantly. Since at least 1990, the number of murders, rapes, robberies and felony assaults has fallen steadily in the 75th Precinct, which includes East New York, according to Police Department statistics.

For 2008, there were 16 murders reported in the 75th Precinct as of mid-December, representing an 86 percent drop in the area’s murder rate over the last 15 years, according to NYPD data.

Along with the drop in crime, in recent years, the neighborhood has seen home values and the rate of home ownership increase. A building boom has taken place, adding new housing projects and shopping centers.

MeadowWood at Gateway, billed as the largest affordable condominium development in Brooklyn, has attracted hundreds of buyers to its relatively low-priced homes. Over the past year, 150 condos have been sold, and over 85 are in contract, said Jean-Paul Ho, a vice president at Fillmore Real Estate.

A studio on the market was listed for $120,000 on Fillmore’s Web site.

“People are looking for good deals,” Ho said.