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Manhattan Hotel Slowdown Confirmed (Again)

October 31, 2008 at 10:27 AM | 0 Comments

Another day, another story about how the hotel industry -- even magical Manhattan -- is struggling and taking measures to curb the effects of the economic downturn by slowing development.

After yet another New York Times article was printed (after this one and this one) declaring the end of the "hotel boom," CB Richard Ellis released a special report on the Manhattan hotel development market and drove it home.

According to the New York Observer:

The report found at least 17 proposed hotel projects that have been shelved amid "increasing construction costs, tightening capital markets, and a lingering economic downturn." That's a loss of 3,225 rooms that were expected to open by the end of 2010.

That loss is just about a 30 percent decrease from "previous estimates cited in the marketplace," says to the report.

That doesn't mean the Manhattan hotel scene is going to freeze, though. There are still plenty of projects on the way in 2009 and 2010; if the Observer is to be believed, there may be as many as 30 new hotels with 4,860 rooms opening doors in 2009 alone. Uh, godspeed.