The three most important words in real estate: location, location, location. And with people from around the world rushing to visit New York, the Big Apple's hotel industry is sitting quite pretty.
From Grand Central Terminal to the Lincoln Center, Times Square to the Financial District, supply cannot meet the demand. Here in the city that never sleeps, even more hotels are being planned and are under construction. City figures early last year showed that 50 hotel developments were in planning stages all over the city, with more than 8,000 rooms in various states of construction.
Of course, whether they'll actually open is another story, say some of the experts who spoke to the New York Sun about the current investment crunch.
If you haven't already heard, Manhattan is going hotel crazy. The Big Apple is going to add a much-needed 20,000 rooms by 2010 but those rooms aren't going to be found in the next Andre Balazs or Ian Schrager hotel.
Nope the big box chains are doing most of the adding here and they all have the same man doing their designs: architect Gene Kaufman.
In a profile with the NY Times, Kaufman points out his renderings for Sheraton, DoubleTree and a Marriott. In all, he is designing 36 new hotels in Manhattan.. To put in perspective:
On one block near Times Square -- 39th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues -- Mr. Kaufman, 50, has five hotels under construction.
Today we got a comment from an upset homeowner who is pretty pissed off with Sam Chang's latest development plan.
Said homeowner writes:
Homeowner's in East Elmhurst, Chang's plan to put a hotel in the middle of our block. We are outraged! He has destroyed a dozen of trees, two homes, yards. We will put up a fight to save our homes that will be worth zero along with our quality of life. How will we protect our castles?
First, we had to take a second and locate East Elmhurst on a map. After finding it in Queens, we wondered why the heck Sam Chang would put up a hotel in Queens. But then again, this man and his McSam hotel group is throwing up hotels all over Manhattan and the outer boroughs and there's never been any rhyme or reason to his development goals. He's also not doing anything more than putting in a Holiday Inn or Comfort Inn.
(For a great tutorial on Chang, head to Curbed. After you read that article, google "Sam Chang" on the site. He's crazy!)
Anyways, if what he's doing in East Elmhurst is true then quick! Somebody build these people a moat.
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.
If you haven't already heard, Manhattan is going hotel crazy. The Big Apple is going to add a much-needed 
Today we got a comment from an upset 
