New hotel projects in New York City are booming, thanks to high occupancy and rising room rates. If current projects stay on track, the total number of rooms will top 110,000 by 2016 — an all-time high.
In the past seven years, the city has added 30,000 new rooms, pushing the current total to 102,000 rooms, the New York Post reported.
“We have not seen anything like today’s construction since the 1920s and early 1930s,” Cushman & Wakefield hotel broker Tom McConnell said.
The biggest potential threats to the boom are soaring inventory and the climbing value of the dollar, which could harm tourism.
“At the end of 2014, our occupancy was very high due to foreign tourism, but the dollar at a 13-year high is a question mark,” Harry Gross, a developer and the owner of two Manhattan Marriott hotels, said. He added that on certain days “we’ve had to reduce rates by 10 to 20 percent.”
Occupancy rates in the Times Square area are in the high 80s to low 90s, he said.
In February, the 330-room Knickerbocker Hotel will open in Times Square. Ian Schrager’s Edition Hotel at 5 Madison Avenue is also set to receive guests this year. [NYP] — Tess Hofmann