It is not a great time for New York City’s hotels.
For one, the city has lost 6,000 rooms since 2019, half of which were in Manhattan, according to JLL. Some of that can be attributed to the conversion of 16,000 into migrant housing, according to Commercial Observer.
The hotel special permit requirement enacted in 2021 is also to blame. While 8,000 rooms are in the construction pipeline, developers looking to build hotels must now go through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, a long, costly and political process that serves as a deterrent.
That special permit was viewed as a boon to hotel unions — the idea being that the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council would have more leverage as part of the land use review process, and could stem the growth of competition from nonunion hotels.
Hotel operators are now trying to fend off another measure, the Safe Hotels Act, that they view as a favor to the union. The American Hotel & Lodging Association has drafted its own version of the bill, though it is not clear if it will get buy-in from the original bill’s sponsor, Council member Julie Menin.
Like Menin’s bill, the industry’s would require hotel operators to obtain licenses. The group’s bill, however, omits provisions that require hotel owners to employ all of their core staff directly, my colleague Elizabeth Cryan reports.
That aspect of Menin’s legislation, the group argues, would “eliminate the subcontractor position for thousands of hard working New Yorkers,” interim AHLA president and CEO Kevin Carey wrote to Menin. Hiring full-time staffers would also, of course, be more costly for the hotels.
Menin told The Real Deal that she is still reviewing “input from all parties and are committed to passing a bill which meets its core objectives of protecting guests, workers and neighbors.”
What we’re thinking about: Where is commercial broker Dustin Stolly headed after his departure from the Newmark? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Strawberry Hill House, an 18th century Georgian Gothic revival castle,
was once home to writer Horace Walpole. In fact, a nightmare Walpole had at the “little gothic castle” inspired his “Castle Otranto,” considered the first Gothic novel, according to the castle’s website.
Elsewhere in New York…
— Gov. Kathy Hochul has tapped Georgia-based firm Public Partnerships LLC to take over a state home health care program, the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, Gothamist reports. The Alliance to Protect Home Care has called on the governor not to move forward with the company just yet, pointing to a class-action lawsuit pending against it. “Hochul is handing New York’s home care program over to a company that has been a complete disaster in every state they’ve operated,” said Bryan O’Malley, the Alliance to Protect Home Care’s executive director.
— Timothy Pearson is stepping down from his role as a senior adviser for public safety in the Adams administration, the New York Times reports. His departure comes weeks after his phone was seized as part of a federal corruption investigation, separate from the one that led to the mayor’s indictment.
— On Tuesday, for the first time in nearly 50 years, the International Longshoremen’s Association went on strike, the New York Daily News reports. Workers are seeking wage increases and restrictions on automating their jobs.
Closing Time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Tuesday was $16 million for an 8,400-square-foot townhouse at 52 East 66th Street in Lenox Hill. Carrie Chiang and Andres Perea-Garzon of the Corcoran Group had the listing.
Commercial: The largest commercial sale of the day was $28.3 million for a 6,232-square-foot retail property at 136 North Sixth Street in Williamsburg.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $16.5 million for an 8,300-square-foot townhouse at 38 West 87th Street on the Upper West Side. Adam D. Modlin and Andrew Nierenberg of the Modlin Group have the listing. — Matthew Elo