HotelChatter

What are the most exciting features of the new hotel?
I think that we are providing an experience that has been overlooked in New York City—which is to provide uptown-quality rooms and service with a downtown mentality and social environment. We have had good reviews [for Hotel Gansevoort] but with this hotel we want to raise the bar higher— so when you walk into the front lobby and then into your room, you have more of a Four Seasons experience. But you also have the option of going into a ONE Group restaurant, into a liquor bar, and into a dramatic rooftop space with three levels.

I think the overall experience that you’ll get here, with Exhale Spa, with Cutler Salon, with the rooftop, and with the rooms ... I don’t think there’s anything like it in an urban center. I don’t think that anyone has really been able to balance all these things.

Who is your ideal Gansevoort Park guest?
We intend to have an incredibly eclectic clientele and meet a lot of different needs. That’s what will make this hotel successful. I want to capture the client who would otherwise stay at the Four Seasons, The Palace, The Peninsula, or The Plaza. That’s who I’m going after. I’m looking for the 20-year-old through to the 75-year-old who’s young at heart. Someone who wants options, and doesn’t want to feel stifled in a more ‘proper’ midtown hotel.

Will people who aren’t looking for a party scene find what they want here, too?
Yes, that’s exactly who we want. We want guests who are either looking for the full social environment—or guests who are satisfied knowing they’ll be treated amazingly at the front desk and can go up to their room and feel like they’re in an oasis. They don’t have to leave their room. it’s an option. It’s about service. If a client walks in and they’re ill, we’ll send them tea. We don’t have to be asked. It’s like the Ritz-Carlton model of anticipation.

How important is it for you to have the hottest bar or restaurant in town?
Food and beverage and events drives rooms business. So yes, I would love for our restaurant to be well received. But it’s not just being done to be quote-unquote ‘hot’. I brought in a chef, Marco Porceddu, who’s won James Beard Awards, for Asellina. Up on the rooftop, the slider menu will have some great items like Kobe pigs in a blanket, mini lobster rolls and mini chicken sandwiches, which are incredible.

You can only be hot for so long—but if you build a great product and you’re always adapting, your clients will continue to love it. You can’t rebuild your mousetrap—you can’t overhaul your guest rooms without massive costs. So when we were designing this hotel we made the decision to build oversized rooms with extra clearance in the ceiling height. We have really tried to build for the long-term.

Hotel Gansevoort was a turning point for the Meatpacking District. Do you have similar ambitions in this area?
I do believe you will see this become a corridor of social life in New York City—from 28th to 29th Street, all the way across. It’s really cleaned up, with the investment we’ve made and the Ace has made, as well as some other developers in the area. And there are great retail spaces available now. Plus, we’ll have great retail with the Lacoste store. They’ll be launching a lot of special edition products from this outpost. So it’s iconic but at the same time there are more modern aspects of the brand.

That’s what this hotel is also striving to be. We always joke that it’s an urban resort because we offer so many amenities. But I envision it as a combination of classic New York City midtown hotel, with a young edge to it. Just look at the picture at the bottom of the pool: you have this classic, Americana 1940s pinup girl image—but she’s got a ‘G’ tattoo on her ankle and she’s beckoning you into the pool with the words, ‘I’m waiting.’ That intersection of a little bit of sexuality and a little bit of classic is what we’re striving for.

Have you been in the pool yet?
No. With the last hotel, I jumped in as we filled it—in the middle of the winter. But I have not yet had the opportunity here. I’m looking forward to it.

Have you stayed at the Gansevoort Park Avenue? What were your thoughts? Do they match up with what Michael Achenbaum has promised! Send us a line and let us know!