Reply With Quotedecent looking? maybe for a prison......................The Clinton McSam at 44th is pretty much the most decent-looking of the McSam lot
The Clinton McSam at 44th is pretty much the most decent-looking of the McSam lot, and yet it still looks downright banal. At least it's not downright tacky color-wise as opposed to all the other Kaufman uglies.
Just by looking at all the mutant wacko buildings Kaufman's plopping like bird droppings into the New York cityscape with the help of McSam (or should I say McScam?), I can't help but wonder if that guy's colorblind. His works makes the Bryant Park Hotel look like a masterpiece, and that's definitely saying something.
I can just see someone a few years down the road writing a story on two NY real estate supervillains by the name of Sam Chang and Gene Kaufman destroying the NYC streetscape with their midrise eyesore hotels. It'll definitely make for a cool hero-villain story, only that there are no heroes (not yet at least...most unfortunately) to save the day and drive those two buffoons out of the city.
decent looking? maybe for a prison......................The Clinton McSam at 44th is pretty much the most decent-looking of the McSam lot
Developers head Uptown for hotels
New openings on UES, UWS despite limited opportunity; others renovate to cash in on boom
Hotels saved or benefiting from
the boom include the Empire
Hotel on West 63rd Street.
By Adam Piore
February 2007
Last month marked the start of the two-month "slow season" in the New York City hospitality industry. But you wouldn't know it in the lobby of the Hotel Belleclaire on West 77th Street.
Occupancy is at 90 percent. On a typical "slow" afternoon, bellhops pushed overflowing luggage carts through throngs of international tourists. Hebrew, German and Italian rang out from all corners -- there was even a jetlagged poodle from Paris napping in front of the check-out counter.
New York's tourism boom has reached Uptown, into the sleepiest areas of the New York hospitality industry. It appears to be reversing a once-ominous trend for hotels on the predominately residential Upper East and West sides of Manhattan.
The past three years have seen the closure of the Mayflower on 60th and Central Park West, the Olcott on 72nd and Central Park West and the Melrose on 63rd and Lexington Avenue as developers capitalized on the red-hot residential market and took their properties condo.
Many developers are now scrapping the long-planned conversions of several hotels, as others renovate and upgrade existing properties.
It makes sense in the current hospitality climate. While the residential market cooled, more than 44 million tourists converged on New York City in 2006 -- an all-time record. The cost of staying in a New York hotel rose 11 percent from $217 per night in 2005 to $241 in 2006. Most hotels were operating at 85 percent occupancy, or higher.
"There's been a palpable shift in the thought processes of developers," says Michael Forrest, senior associate at Marcus & Millichap. "For years, the highest and best use was residential luxury condos. It didn't really matter where it was or what you paid for it; it was easy to pencil out. Now the market has corrected itself. And because of the huge shortage of supply, hotels make sense."
Existing hotels are preparing for the deluge. At the Belleclaire, management is replacing carpet with laminate floors, hauling in new furniture and installing wireless Internet access. They hope to upgrade from two-star to three-star quality.
The Millburn Hotel on 76th Street is constructing a new business center off its lobby. The Comfort Inn on 71st and Central Park West will redo its rooms at the end of the month. The On the Ave Hotel, across Broadway on 77th Street, also has renovations and upgrades scheduled. And the Beacon Hotel on 75th Street plans to upgrade some rooms and raise rates.
Meanwhile, a number of property owners in the neighborhood are departing from long-standing plans to covert to residential. The Empire Hotel at 44 West 63rd Street at Broadway, for instance, was slated to go condo. Its owners now plan to reopen it as a hotel. On the Upper East Side, Korman Communities, a Philadelphia-based hotel group, recently acquired the former Sutton Hotel on East 56th Street near First Avenue, which was slated to go condo but will now be a hotel once more.
So far, analysts can only point to one newly built hotel on the Upper East and Upper West sides: The Marriott Courtyard at 92nd and Fifth Avenue, which opened last fall.
"There's been interest in both the Upper East and Upper West Side and there's certainly interest in nontraditional locations," says Sean Hennessey, CEO of Lodging Advisors. "But so far, I haven't seen it translate into too many properties up there."
That may soon change.
"I think developers are willing to develop in Manhattan in areas that weren't available before because that's where they can get sites," says John Fox, senior vice president of PKF Consulting, an international hotel advisory firm. "In Midtown, sites are so costly, folks have been driven out to places that a few years ago would have been considered more marginal."
The cost of land decreases farther uptown, culminating in land costs that reach half as much as Midtown once you get north of 96th Street, Fox says. Though plans for a new hotel on 125th Street and Park Avenue were put on hold, a new development with hotel rooms is slated for construction at 233 West 125th Street.
"Right now, you could put a hotel anywhere in Manhattan and do well," Fox says. "Demand has been so strong we're driving business out of Manhattan because guests can't be accommodated. Business is moving to the outer boroughs and New Jersey. We think Manhattan effectively sells out about 200 nights out of the year."
The biggest factors working against substantial growth in the Upper West and Upper East Side hotel market are zoning regulations. Unlike the area on the far West Side near the Javits Center -- which is zoned for manufacturing and is thus prime ground for hotel development -- much of the Upper East and West sides is zoned for residential, which restricts development usage.
Still, much space on the main boulevards like Broadway on the West Side and First Avenue on the East Side theoretically allows for further hotel development. The number of new developments in those neighborhoods, analysts say, will depend on how high hotel rates go.
Copyright © 2003-2007 The Real Deal.
I think I smell a McSam or twelve moving uptown
Yes, that McSam stench is getting very strong.
this frickin douche is gonna get rich from his crap too...
Anyone have any info on a NYC hotel developer / operator under the name of "Mehta Family LLC"?
I did a google search and see that the head of that LLC (Krishna K. Mehta aka K. K. Mehta) is a member of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) and hails from Rajasthan in India.
Can't find much else.
Any info is appreciated ...
Try a search on this forum (the whole site, not just this subforum). I remember reading that name here before.
Good ol' zoning. Working hard to keep the city dragging its heels.Originally Posted by krulltime
Re: Kishna K. Mehta / K. K. Mehta / Mehta Family LLC
I gave that a shot ...
Of course came up with lots of posts mentioning Zubin Mehta
And some posts with articles written by two different reporters with the last name Mehta ...
In Tappan Zee Bridge thread there was this:"The bridge is not in a state of disrepair," said Ramesh Mehta, Hudson Valley division director for the Thruway Authority.
A post in Manhattan Residential Development thread yielded this from November 2005:New Developments (Real Deal)New Residential Developments
Upper West Side
Casa Rohan Condominium70 West 107th Street The project by Mehta Real Estate features four full-floor apartments and 2,300 square feet of commercial space. Three of the residential units have two or three bedrooms in 1,434 square feet. The fourth unit is a 2,368-square-foot, four-bedroom duplex with a private balcony and a 450-square-foot terrace. Prices range from $1.18 to $1.6 million, with occupancy slated for November. Dhia Barnes and Elizabeth Steele of the Warburg Marketing Group are handling sales.That led me to this: http://www.mehtarealestate.com/about.php
Where they say this :But they seem to still be located in India:
Prince Tower, Shop No. G-6, Ground Floor,
94-113, Purasawalkam High Road,
Chennai - 600 010 (opp Abhirami Theatre)
Treading further DOB shows that an architect for 70 West 107th Street is:Parag R Mehta
PM Architecture PC
Which led to this article about a restaurant that Mehta designed in Harlem:alas ...
So many searches, so much information -- none of which is what I need at the moment
For all you Hotel thread followers, soon a 1,000 room plus development will be unveiled in Manhattan which will help offset the soon to be lost Hotel Penn and Drake
Good news. Is this the NYC Convention Center hotel?
I wager that one of Extell's sites on 57th (either the Hard Rock or the site across from Carnegie Hall) will have hotels, but I assume that they will be 250room high-end hotels.
What? Where? When? Who? How?
Bogus hotels in Village and Soho
Based on residents’ complaints, Housing Conservation Coordinators, a tenant-advocacy group, has compiled a list of 94 suspected illegal hotels scattered throughout Manhattan. Ten of these are in the Village and Soho areas alone, and four of them belong to Signature Properties NY.
Complaints have been registered for Signature Properties’ “Suites” at 9 Minetta St., at 55 Morton St. and at 118 Spring St.
But Signature’s most notorious suspect is at 160 Bleecker St. Complaints were made to the Buildings Department as early as 2004 that rooms there were being rented on a nightly basis. The property now has 13 active complaints on file for everything from illegal conversion of apartments into hotel units to maid carts blocking exits.
The Villager called Signature Suites Tuesday afternoon and asked if any rooms were available at their Bleecker St. location for the weekend. A reservationist agreed to rent a studio apartment for Friday and Saturday at a rate of $169 per night.
Another property under investigation is The Chelsmore at 205 W. 15th St. D.O.B. has one active complaint on file for this location for operating as a hotel. A Web site for the property advertises nightly rates of $120, though it states that a six-night minimum is required.
(C) Community Media LLC
BRACK CAPITAL REAL ESTATE ACQUIRES MIDTOWN DEVELOPMENT SITE FOR $31 MILLION
UPSCALE HOTEL TO RISE ON WEST 35TH STREET
Brack Capital Real Estate - USA has acquired 63-67 West 35th Street for $31 million from Icon Parking, it was announced by Moshe Azogui, CEO of Brack USA. Mr. Azogui said he plans to develop an upscale hotel with 300 rooms in the heart of bustling midtown south.
The site, on the north side of West 35th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Herald Square, is currently occupied by a six-story parking garage.
"This prime site is centrally located with easy access to Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station (and the planned Moynihan Station) and close to such New York icons as the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Macy's, Madison Square Garden, Bryant Park and Times Square," Mr. Azogui said. "It is an ideal spot for attracting both business executives and tourists," he said. Construction is expected to start immediately.
Eastern Consolidated's Brian Ezratty, Vice Chairman, and Scott Ellard, Director, represented both Brack Capital Real Estate and the seller, Darryl Mallah of Icon Parking.
"The price attained for 63-67 West 35th Street is commensurate with the pricing achieved for other such centrally-located Midtown properties with development potential," said Mr. Ezratty. "Zoned to accommodate any type of residential or commercial development, the new buyer's choice of hotel use should bode well at a time when there is a distinct dearth of hospitality properties in the City."
http://therealestate.observer.com/20...cale-area.html
It's going to be another Poon Palace, 31 stories
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/Jo...73&requestid=1
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