Brooklyn Hotel Buzz: Boom and Doom
The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce hosted a hotel development panel yesterday where participants shared plenty of tasty treats about the hospitality industry’s plans for Kings County. Architect Gene Kaufman, developer Sam Chang of McSam Hotel Group, Hotel Le Bleu’s general manager Robert Gaeta and Heather Parsons of PLC Partners (which is building the 300-room Cambria…
The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce hosted a hotel development panel yesterday where participants shared plenty of tasty treats about the hospitality industry’s plans for Kings County. Architect Gene Kaufman, developer Sam Chang of McSam Hotel Group, Hotel Le Bleu’s general manager Robert Gaeta and Heather Parsons of PLC Partners (which is building the 300-room Cambria Suites at 75 Schermerhorn) held forth about the state of Brooklyn’s hotel market. Some highlights:
– Hotel mogul Chang (who built the Comfort Inn on Butler Street, the Holiday Inn Express on Union Street, and is about to start construction on a 200-room Hyatt at Nevins and Schermerhorn) is totally over Brooklyn and pessimistic about the fate of the thousands of hotel rooms currently planned for the borough. What will happen after 3,000 rooms are built? said Chang. “I don’t like it. It’s enough. I’ve stopped buying in Brooklyn.”
– The team behind 4th Avenue’s Hotel Le Bleu has a far less ballyhooed project set to open within the next few weeks. Hotel Le Jolie at 235 Withers Street is going to have rooms priced between $200 and $350 a night, according to general manager Robert Gaeta. It will be Williamsburg’s first hotel, said Gaeta. (Though whether it’s actually in Williamsburg rather than Greenpoint is open to interpretation, we think.) Gaeta also had some strong words for the haters out there who don’t think Le Bleu is going to find takers for its $300-$500 a night rates. I think some of the people writing these blog sites may not be able to afford $400 a night, he sniffed. (You’re right!) Gaeta opined that someday, 4th Avenue will become a boulevard for Brooklyn.
– The credit crunch is going to cause a bit of a shake out for some hotel developers, said Gene Kaufman. The architect (who designed the two hotels slated for Duffield Street) thinks that projects “that don’t make sense won’t get built as borrowers find it harder to finance their developments. And Chang said he’d personally experienced the effects of the crunch because lenders are now looking for 30 to 35 percent equity from borrowers, whereas two months ago they only expected 10 percent.
Duffield Street Hotel Double-Shot Revealed [Brownstoner]
Schermerhorn Street: Not Crappy for Much Longer [Brownstoner]
Hotel Le Bleu Opening Still Stalled [Brownstoner]
I just called the Hotel Le Bleu. They are not open yet, they do not have a date and do not know when they will be open. “Could be a few more weeks,” could be longer…
And they make it sound like they have people lining up at the door to pay that price for that location…
Oh well, dream big!
10:50 – You will never see $200K 1 BR Condos in this part of Brooklyn. Maybe in Brighton Beach and the outlying areas – For a little while.
(Am I the only one feeling gloomy about Brooklyn’s future? Too many hotel rooms, too many condos, too many rentals, etc. Are there really that many people that want to live here to fill up all of those spaces?)
Yes there are, but not at the prices expected. Some developers and lenders might lose out, but Brooklyn comes out ahead, with $200K one-bedroom condos and $150 a night hotel rooms. The main thing that makes me gloomy about Brooklyn is the high cost of real estate.
1034…great point…soemthing tells me the same thing was said when marriott was “mad” enough to build that hot pillow joint on adams st…i’m afraid you are way out of touch with the reality of the nyc hotel market – good luck finding that $100 hotel room.
Am I the only one feeling gloomy about Brooklyn’s future? Too many hotel rooms, too many condos, too many rentals, etc. Are there really that many people that want to live here to fill up all of those spaces?
Bullsh*t, 10:08, you obviously don’t travel that frequently. Why the hell would someone visiting NYC pay $500/night to stay on 4th, when they can get a room in the heart of manhattan for less. The location pays for itself, in THOSE instances the traveller doesn’t care about what’s outside of their window…that won’t fly on 4th.
I can TOO afford–oooh! You jerk! This is so going in my blog!
908/959…you don’t get it…people staying in hotel rooms in nyc don’t give a shit what they are looking at…they are staying in nyc for a reason and the reason isn’t the view from their hotel room. further to the point – why are people scooping up condos directly across from staple/pep boys? for the view?
There is a hotel in Williamsburg? Where’s the website / local outreach? Or is this like Le Bleu – which has been about to open for months?