Yes, it is true, this is not an April Fools' Day joke, we reserved a room tonight for the Greenwich Hotel opening, via the Greenwich Hotel website and though our reservation went through last week, late yesterday we received word that our reservation had been canceled at the request of the hotel. A phone call to the hotel's PR reps and the hotel itself confirmed that they were not going to let us sleep there tonight.
As loyal readers know we have been following the opening of the DeNiro/Drukier hotel project since the middle of 2004. We followed the constantly "coming soon" North Moore Street hotel through loud construction, name changes, name calling, and endless delays. So it should come as no surprise that today, the hotel's first day accepting guests, we had a reservation to stay at the hotel.
Many times you readers send us first photos and reviews, which we love. But other times a hotel is woven so deep into our sites fabric -- like when Gramercy Park opened, or back when Wynn Las Vegas opened, we decide to go to the public opening ourselves. We are, after all, hotel geeks. In these cases we simply use our credit card to book a room at the buzzworthy hotel and reviewed it as soon as we can for you, just like our readers and tipsters do for us.
What's going on at Robert DeNiro's Downtown Hotel? For such a buzz-worthy property, it's been eerily quiet the past six months. (Though the mysterious Down By The Hipster blog told us the hotel "will make the Bowery Hotel look like a Red Roof Inn.") We had to put on our reporter caps to dig up even the slightest bit of news.
But it's big news, at least to us: According to a spokesbot at NYC and Co., the hotel opening will be delayed until 2008. We originally had the opening date pegged for early this year, but the TriBeCa property is drifting closer and closer to 6 Columbus infamy. (A call over to Rockwell Group, the designer, hasn't been returned yet.)
[Note: Today is unofficially celebrity hotelier day.]
We don't quite get this. About.com assembled a list of Top 10 New Best Hotels for Romance for 2006 and listed at #8 is Robert DeNiro's Downtown Hotel in Tribeca, which we last reported wasn't opening until 2007.
Here's what About.com has to say:
Robert DeNiro is planning to add a hip new hotel to his downtown portfolio, which already includes the Screening Room and the Tribeca Film Institute. His boutique, seven-story, brick-and-terracotta hotel at North Moore and Greenwich Streets in the historic neighborhood is scheduled to open at the end of 2006. It will have 83 rooms and feature skylights, angled windows, and distinctive Manhattan manhole covers built into cornices.
With someone describing the place as an "overbaked shit cookie" we're not quite sure this place will exude romance. Maybe a sex toy package will do the trick?
Our friends over at Curbed are doing a most excellent HoodWatch mini-series on North Tribeca which is the future home of DeNiro's long anticipated Downtown Hotel. Way back in the Blogeozoic era (2004) we started anticipating DeNiro's downtown hospitality treat. We fully expected this place to open its doors by year end, however, yesterday's Curbed entry prompted us to make a call to a source close to the situation.
HotelChatter: Is the Downtown Hotel still opening this year? Secret Hotel Insider: Soon, I think. I know they are doing interiors now. Did you see those bricks? This is really rude, but they are shit brown are they not? HotelChatter: We've only seen jpegs, someone said it looks like an overbaked cookie. Secret Hotel Insider: An overbaked shit cookie. HotelChatter: Enough. Is it opening soon or not? Secret Hotel Insider: Let me check.
Long Pause. If we told you who our insider was checking with his or her secret identity would be compromised, and DeNiro would probably send Robert Duvall, Joe Pesci, or Ben Stiller out to strong arm our informant, and we can't have that.
Secret Hotel Insider: It says 2007. (Reads from an official sounding document) HotelChatter: Harumph--same document as last year, but now it says 2007. We really thought DeNiro wouldn't go Pomeranc on us. Secret Hotel Insider: Oh, give them a break, it will be open soon enough.
Robert DeNiro loves TriBeCa but has no respect for the neighbors, according to the New York Post.
DeNiro and partner Ira Drukier are building a $43 million hotel on North Moore Street and Greenwich and construction begins on the lot each day at 5:30 a.m. much to the chagrin of the residents nearby.
"None of us can sleep," one told the tabloid. "The whole neighborhood is up in arms. The city tells them to stop, and they stop, and as soon as the city leaves, they start right up again. This has been going on for months."
But it's not just average Joes in the hood. Ed Burns and Christy Turlington, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and Damon Dash also live nearby. Pray for the Olsen twins, they need their beauty rest.
Via Curbed we had the pleasure of taking in some early photos of Robert DeNiro's new Tribeca hotel. Our first impressions? The hotel takes minimalist decor to the next level. We all were wondering what would come next, after boutique hotels, and it seems DeNiro has the answer...dirt.
No word yet on when the hotel will open, but we wouldn't guess anytime soon.
