10 New Hotels Coming to FiDi, Williamsburg, LIC and Beyond

The William Vale 111 North 12th Street Rooms: 183 Opened: Fall 2016 At another time in New York City history, it might turn more than a couple of heads to say that one of the biggest hotel openings was in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. But the William Vale, a ground-up hotel at 111 North 12th Street formerly named the Level Hotel, has indeed become one of this year’s most hyped lodgings. Did a series of opening delays have something to do with it? Perhaps, but hospitality experts have told CO it’s the experience that the 183-room hotel has to offer that’s the most exciting part. The hotel, which opened in September, features a rooftop bar, Westlight, which is run by Noho Hospitality Group. It’s one of several eateries the Manhattan-based group will have at the location. Another is Leuca, an Italian restaurant headed by Noho partner Andrew Carmellini.

Four Seasons Hotel and Residences New York Downtown 30 Park Place Rooms: 185 (plus 157 condo units) Opening: Late summer to fall 2016 Fall, winter, spring or summer, the Four Seasons leaves its customers happy. And, in this case, why choose a season when you can live through them all at the Four Seasons condominium. Silverstein Properties and Four Seasons executives ceremonially cut the ribbon on the first Downtown hotel of its kind at 30 Park Place between Broadway and Church Street last month, with a soft opening throughout the fall. Silverstein at one point planned to build an office building at the site, which the company bought for $170 million in 2006, but opted to convert it to a residential tower. The Robert A.M. Stern-designed tower features the hotel at the base and 157 condo units above it, whose inhabitants will have access to all Four Seasons services. Stern recently told CO that he designed the building to emulate some of the older Lower Manhattan structures, notably the nearby 1 Wall Street between Broad and New Streets. “It’s a top hotel chain, in the world probably, and now you have a hotel with super rooms, amazing restaurants, a ballroom,” he said. “You see the two rivers coming together, you see the harbor, you see Staten Island, you see Brooklyn.”

The Beekman, a Thompson Hotel 123 Nassau Street Rooms: 287 Opened: Late summer 2016 Originally a beautiful brick building constructed in the 1880s as an office property with an atrium and skylight, The Beekman, a Thompson Hotel, at 123 Nassau Street between Ann and Beekman Streets, has been converted into one of the city’s hottest new hotels. The Beekman soft opened to much fanfare this August after a conversion led by GFI Development Company and GB Lodging. Thompson Hotels is operating the 287-key hotel, where rooms go for $339 to $644 per night, according to booking website Trip Advisor. The dining options are headlined by Fowler & Wells, a restaurant spearheaded by celebrity chef Tom Colicchio (a sirloin steak fetches $51, according to a menu published on Grub Street). Restaurateur Kevin McNally’s Augustine will serve breakfast through dinner, too, with French fare and smaller dishes.

Esplendor Bossert (Hotel Bossert) 98 Montague Street Rooms: 282 Opening: Late 2016 ome day it might just be a hotel once again. Hotel Bossert, once considered the Waldorf Astoria of Brooklyn, is slated to reopen —but under a new name—some time in the coming months. Investors David Bistricher and Joseph Chetrit bought the building from the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, the governing arm of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, in 2012 for $81 million. The Witnesses used the 12-story building with about 220 rooms as a lodging center for congregants visiting Brooklyn. But its new owners have decided to return the building to its past incarnation as a hotel that will eventually have 282 rooms. They’ve tapped the Argentina-based Fen Hoteles to manage the 107-year-old building, which it will operate as the Esplendor Bossert. Although Bistricher announced earlier this year the hotel would open last month, the Brooklyn Paper reported two weeks ago that its debut has since been pushed back.

Doubletree by Hilton Times Square West 346 West 40th Street Rooms: 612 Opening: December 2016 Tourists and visitors to New York City will soon be seeing double on West 40th Street. Hospitality developer Sam Chang and his McSam Hotel Group are set to open the Doubletree by Hilton Times Square West this fall at 346 West 40th Street. The 35-story hotel between Eighth and Ninth Avenues will have 612 rooms and is slated to open this December. The Gene Kaufman-designed structure will feature a rooftop bar, a restaurant and a 1,000-square-foot conference room. Chang, one of the most prolific hotel developers in New York City, bought the property in 2013 for $23.6 million. He razed a 9,875-square-foot, six-story parking garage that previously stood on the site.

The Williamsburg Hotel 96 Wythe Avenue Rooms: 150 Opening: December 2016 The William Vale isn’t the only spot slated to become a showstopper, North Brooklyn. Heritage Equity Partners has wrapped up work on The Williamsburg Hotel. The property at 96 Wythe Avenue between North 10th and North 11th Streets will have its first overnight guests on Dec. 1. There will be 150 rooms and suites, designed by Michaelis Boyd Studio—known for its work in London and Berlin. There will also be a rooftop pool as well as three bars—one of which will mimic one of Brooklyn’s wooden water towers of yore. Chef Adam Leonti’s new restaurant, Harvey, will also open at the hotel and have a menu focused on grain and vegetable dishes.

1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1 at Brooklyn Bridge Park Rooms: 192 (plus 100 condo units) Opening: February 2017 Enjoy that late-evening stroll through Brooklyn Bridge Park so much that you wish you could just stay the night? Well, pretty soon you can. Starwood Property Trust and partner Toll Brothers City Living have gone through waves of community pushback but are slated to open their 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge Park in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn next February. The developers are working on the project as part of the Pierhouse Complex, which sits on the park and abuts the Brooklyn Bridge. The hotel will have 192 guest rooms, and there will be 100 residential condominium units. (Toll Brothers is handling the residential side of the project and Starwood is handling the hotel.) Starwood is considering selling the under-development hotel, however, as well as its 1 Hotel Central Park in Midtown, as The Real Deal reported in June. Residents of neighboring Brooklyn Heights have expressed concern to the local media that a new buyer could come in and convert the building into condos, too, which would be a departure from its original purpose.

SLS Hotel New York 444 Park Avenue South Rooms: 189 Opening: Early 2017 David Moinian’s Moin Development and SBE have partnered to convert the 14-story office building at 444 Park Avenue South between East 30th and East 31st Streets into the first SLS-branded hotel in New York City. Now, the structure is slated to reopen as the 189-room SLS Hotel New York at the beginning of 2017, according to NYC & Company. The $150 million project includes adding six stories on top of the original 96-year-old structure, as CO reported in July 2015. SLS, which has had success with hotels in Beverly Hills and Miami Beach, was co-founded by French designer Philippe Starck. The 444 Park Avenue South project is Stark’s first foray into New York City since the Hudson Hotel at 358 West 58th Street and Ninth Avenue, which opened 16 years ago.

The Estate at Ravel 8-08 Queens Plaza South Rooms: 54 Opening: Spring 2017 Long Island City is a much different place than when the Ravel Hotel first opened there in 2008. For starters, roughly 20 new hotels have bowed in the western Queens enclave and that number is set to double in the coming years, according to data from the Long Island City Partnership, a business improvement group. The folks behind the 63-room Ravel, located at 8-08 Queens Plaza South between Ninth Street and Vernon Boulevard, announced in 2013 that an adjoining tower would be built at the LIC hotel: The Estate at Ravel. The new structure is part of a reported $10 million renovation of the hotel and will add 54 rooms to the Ravel’s roster. Slated to open in spring 2017, according to NYC & Company, The Estate at Ravel will feature not just a garden and a ballroom but a swimming pool that can be converted into an ice skating rink.

Dream Hotel Times Square 560 Seventh Avenue Rooms: 238 Opening: 2018 No, this one won’t be coming until 2018, but it’s the stuff that dreams are made of. Sharif El-Gamal’s Soho Properties has teamed up with Dream Hotels to tear down the old structure at 560 Seventh Avenue, formerly home to the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Garment Center Synagogue. In its place will be a 238-room Dream Hotel between West 40th and West 41st Streets in the ever-gentrifying Times Square area. But we’re not just talking hotel here, either—after all, this is Times Square. Soho Properties and MHP Real Estate Services will be constructing a glass-and-steel retail cube at the base of the building. The synagogue will also be brought back to the site, where it had a longstanding lease at the property. (In the meantime it is based nearby at 1384 Broadway between West 37th and West 38th Streets.)