HotelChatter

Thanks to the New York Observer, we at least have an update from the inside, as they toured the property on March 12 and reported back that while many rooms were complete, the public areas continue to look shaky for an April 1 opening. They even scored a direct quote on the debut date from Calderwood himself, who said: "It will either be the last week in March or first week in April. It’s right around the corner." Since it's obviously not going to be the former, we'll still bank on the early April estimate.

Reading deeper into the Observer article has us yearning for more than just a new place to lay our heads; in it, Alex reveals ambitious plans for an old school newsstand and a bespoke glove service, the gloves coming from the family business of one of the former Breslin residents. In addition, Calderwood is offering the lingering SRO tenants the option to move into fully-renovated rooms, all the while continuing to embrace the building's creative history:

There’s a couple artists that live here, too, that are doing murals for us. There’s a filmmaker that wants to do a documentary on the building. There used to be a gentleman named Harry Smith that lived here years and years ago. We’ve reached out to his foundation; they’re super-ecstatic. We’re talking about reissuing his Anthology of American Folk Music on vinyl. We’re talking about incorporating a lot of his art into the building. Hopefully, they’ll license some of his experimental films that will go on the video-on-demand system.

Vintage vinyl, made-to-order gloves, indie films and house-roasted coffee? What is this place, some sort of freaky-deeky heaven? Of course, we have to wait until the building actually welcomes visitors without hard hats to decide if all of this will do well. Here's hoping though, here's hoping that Calderwood can pull it all together and show us something truly unique.