Developer brings boutique hotel to South Bronx

The developer of the Lucerne and Belvedere boutique hotels in Manhattan is planning a similar lodging project, set to open in December, for a property he owns in the South Bronx. The New York Daily News reported Jay Domb is transforming the old Bronx Opera House, at 436 East 149th Street in the Hub section of the Bronx, into a $10 million, 61-room boutique hotel called the Bronx Opera House Hotel.

Domb bought the theater, which hosted the likes of the Marx Brothers, George Burns and Harry Houdini, for $2 million in 2007. He restored the Beaux Arts facade and renovated the four-story section of the structure where the opera house stood. Domb demolished the auditorium, which had been condemned, and constructioned a three-story replacement.

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Domb plans the rooms to be located on the second, third and fourth floors and hopes the ground floor retail space and basement is leased to a big box store. He expects the hotel to attract visitors to Yankee Stadium, family of patients at the Lincoln Hospital and European tourists that travel on a budget. [NYDN]