Lower Manhattan Lodging Market Picks Up
By Lauren Elkies Schram April 29, 2014 7:45 am
reprints
While portions of lower Manhattan were still in recovery mode from Supersorm Sandy last year, the downtown hospitality market appears to be picking up this year.
There are 49 hotel projects in the pipeline in Lower Manhattan as of March, up from 43 year-over-year, according to data provided by lodging industry benchmarking services firm STR to Commercial Observer. The room count follows suit, up to 9,697 from 7,906 at the same time last year.
Of the 49 hotels, 13 (with 1,342 guestrooms) are in the planning phase, 10 (with 2,497 rooms) are in the final planning stage and 26 (with 5,408 rooms) are under construction. Those hotels are being added to an existing supply of 164 properties with 27,416 rooms.
As Commercial Observer reported last week, Hersha Hospitality Trust, The Lam Group and Lam Generation are opening a total of four hotels over the next few months: Hampton Inn at 32 Pearl Street (Hersha), Four Points at 6 Platt Street (The Lam Group), Fairfield Inn & Suites at 161 Front Street (Lam Generation) and Aloft at 49-53 Ann Street (Lam Generation).
“It really was an underserviced market in terms of hotel rooms,” Glen Coben, founder of Glen & Company, previously told CO. His firm has been tasked with interior design at the Hersha and Lam projects.
This March’s figures beat out last year’s in all phases of development.
In March 2013, 21 properties (with 3,000 rooms) were in the planning phase, eight were in final planning (with 1,973 rooms) and 14 (with 2,933 rooms) were in construction. At that time the existing supply was 154 properties with 26,057 rooms.
