HotelChatter

Nolitan GM Patrik Horstmann used to manage the Gansevoort, and he is keen to avoid the neighborhood-alienation that went on as that hotel went up over in the Meatpacking District. The emphasis at the Nolitan is on friendly accessibility—for local businesses, residents, and hotel guests alike.

With just 55 rooms, the hotel will be intimate—and some of the rooms quite small—but it’s been designed to open up and create space in a few different ways: through channel-glass panels that you can see in the rendering of the exterior, fire-escape-sized balconies for 25 of the rooms, a double-height lobby lounge and restaurant area, a sidewalk café, and that rooftop with views in every direction.

The view looking east towards the Williamsburg Bridge

This part of Nolita is still pretty gritty and industrial, something architects Grzywinski+Pons are recreating in the hotel’s wooden floors and exposed concrete ceilings and columns. But rest assured, there will be layers of comfort as well, from flatscreen TVs to Jimmy Bradley’s restaurant.

We’ll bring you more details from The Nolitan as we count down to the opening, but we simply can’t wait to tell you that the hotel will offer complimentary WiFi as well as complimentary local and toll-free phone calls. Long-distance calls will carry no surcharge.

Horstmann was adamant that guests shouldn’t have to pay outrageous mark-up for services that should be standard—cue enthusiastic applause—and for this alone we put The Nolitan one step ahead of its neighbor, 60 Thompson, which has reverted to charging for the privilege of WiFi.

Rooms at The Nolitan will be in the $300-a-night range. We’ll let you know as soon as they start accepting bookings, which should be in the next few weeks.