We think our love for delay-watching Thompson Hotels is quite clear, what with all the fodder we have from other debacles Six Columbus and Allen Street.
Now we turn our eye to their new property filling out and pepping up in Tribeca, Smyth, where Thompson hotelier Jason Pomeranc is giving himself some nice buffer time with a predicted Winter 2009 debut.
Scoping out the site ourselves revealed that not only are they progressing nicely despite structural concerns, but you can already walk through their lobby at 85 West Broadway.
Don't think you're just around the corner from checking in; what we mean is they've injected a pedestrian walkway right into the first floor construction, allowing any passers-by to tromp right through what will someday be a scene to rival the Saturday night wait for Plunge at The Gansevoort.
We actually feel sort of bad for Robert DeNiro today. The Ago restaurant inside his Greenwich Hotel (from chef Agostino Sciandri) suffered a humiliating beating from NY Times food critic Frank Bruni--receiving zero stars and a "Poor" rating.
This restaurant isn't in the hospitality business. It's in the attitude business, projecting an aloofness that permeated all of my meals there, nights of wine and poses for swingers on the make, cougars on the prowl and anyone else who values a sort of facile fabulousness over competent service or a breaded veal Milanese with any discernible meat.
Yikes. But despite a terrible review from Bruni, clueless Manhattanites and celeb wannabes must still be hitting up this "hotspot." Bruni recommends making reservations three weeks in advance for prime time seatings.
The NY Daily News is reporting that the still-under-construction penthouse of Robert DeNiro's Greenwich Hotel is of an illegal size and could possibly be torn down.
"We approved the addition of a seventh story in November 2004," says Landmarks spokeswoman Elisabeth de Bourbon. "Yet the structure that was built is steeper and its footprint bigger, making it significantly more visible [from the street] than originally allowed."
De Niro has asked the commission - which is tasked with making sure new buildings blend into the neighborhood - to retroactively "legalize" what he's already built.
We're pretty sure that's what will happen when it goes to the NYC Landmarks Commission on June 17. Afterall, this is DeNiro in New York. He's helped make Tribeca what it is today.
Meanwhile Bloomberg News has a nauseating review of the place. However, it was nice to hear that the Greenwich "pretension of the [Gramercy Park Hotel] and the unsteady service" of the newly restored Plaza hotel. Too bad they were a little too elitist to let us have a look.
The ever-delayed Duane Street Hotel may finally be ready for action. A couple clicks on the hotel's website yielded rooms starting at $245 for January 2, 2008. That figure is quite a bit lower than the rack rate, so it may be an opening special.
According to the New York Sun, the Duane Street shouldn't have any trouble filling its 45 rooms: Lower Manhattan is the second-most touristed destination in the city after Times Square.
If the hotel manages to get the doors open in the next two months, we'll have to turn our attention to its 40-seat New American/Mediterranean restaurant 'beca. And of course, that'll leave Robert De Niro'sDowntown Hotel as the Tribeca property to watch.
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.)
As Six Columbus continues to languish on the Upper West Side, Jason Pomeranc's Tribeca project, Smythe continues to get some press.
It was recently announced that the Brennan Beer Gorman Architects will design the hotel, which will include 15 condos atop 100 hotel rooms on the corner of West Broadway and Chambers. Some design details:
Smyth's tall, slim windows with charcoal mullions alternate have been designed to draw the eye upward. A sense of texture and layer is conveyed by the interplay of the pre-cast concrete façade and window mullions, as well as the building's base--a combination of smooth pre-cast panels and pitted `shot sawn' limestone.
Some design problems?
The 100-ft. by 75-ft. site imparted several constraints on the design of the building, such as the city's required zoning heights, the building's proximity to a MTA subway station that could have affected the Smyth's foundation, and the fact that the site falls within a specially designated environmental control zone as defined by the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which required that special details and construction materials be used to diminish the impact the building may have on the neighborhood.
As for the residences they will be located on floors 10-13 and will share a rooftop terrace. But the clincher is the opening date of January 2008 which if Jason hasn't checked the calendar recently is eight months away. And the countdown begins....
The Loft Hotel Tribeca, which was scheduled to open back in April 2006, and is now scheduled to open in December 2006 as the Duane Street Hotel, according to what seems to be the official hotel website (and verified by a pre-recorded message at the pre-sales office) could be opening soon. At the very least we see the original renderings back on the official website. We did some further investigation after our original tipster, who we quoted earlier this week when we received an email where the header read LOFT HOTEL TRIBECA asked us to correct the tip.
Please correct your header - the information that was sent to you (below underlined) is regarding another hotel by Sam Chang at 6 York Street, 1 block south of Canal St, on 6th Avenue-This is not about the Loft Hotel - This is entirely another project.
So what is going on here? Well, we do see that the Duane web site still claims "a unique refuge of timeless comfort and intimacy" is coming to Tribeca, so maybe all this was just a name/ownership change. Did Chang bail on the Loft Hotel Tribeca for this new York Street project? Who knows, but we have also received a couple of tips this week questioning Mr. Chang's development tactics. We aren't going to publish those emails, or try to sort all this out right now. If someone from Luxe wants to weigh in on what is up with Loft Hotel Tribeca Duane Street Hotel, or if those of you emailing us about Sam Chang want to get your opinions out there--go for it in the comments section below.
Between Chang and DeNiro this whole Tribeca hotel scene is a mess--hey Pomeranc, get in here and don't take 5 years to do so--capiche?
We just got an email tip about the ever changing status of Loft Hotel Tribeca.
If you are following along, Loft is/was Sam Chang's Tribeca hotel project that was suppose to open back in April of 2006, promising would be guests "to have a unique refuge of timeless comfort, service with unrivaled care, and courtesy that is not found elsewhere." Here we are in December, still waiting for timeless comfort in Tribeca.
The latest:
Sam Chang has sold the building to Robert Winston of Winston Hotels who is leasing it to Hilton Garden Inn to operate.
There have been many delays with the construction schedule, the hotel is now due to open Spring 07.
Meanwhile about 90% of the ground floor, equal to about 4,000SF, has been rented to a company called 6 York Street.
6 York Street is made up of restaurateurs Shaol Natan (Restaurant Thalia) and Jeremy Cassilli (Lobby & Accapella)
They plan to open a restaurant and cafe called CleaverHouse designed by a company called a.k.a. (Angel Kunnos Associates)
The chef will be Mathieu Palombino of BLT Fish and David Bouley.
a.k.a. is also currently working on a new hotel project in Chelsea, Manhattan, apparently all information is confidential.
So there you have it. New link, renderings (above), and web site seems to verify this news.
