The street-level store marquee along a bustling but homey
stretch of Bedford Avenue in the northern part of the hip Williamsburg
neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., relayed a sentiment that would appear
unimaginable on the other side of the East River:
“Relax. We’re open.”
Brooklyn offers a slightly slower pace and smaller scale for
visitors both accustomed to and escaping from the warp speed of Manhattan. That
said, hotel development during the past few years in New York’s most populous
borough reflects what’s becoming more of a prime destination in its own right
and less of a side trip.
In Williamsburg, the McCarren Hotel & Pool (formerly the
King and Grove Brooklyn) opened across the street from McCarren Park in 2011,
while one block west, the modern and towering William Vale hotel debuted last
month.
A visit to the McCarren will further reinforce
Williamsburg’s relatively (relative to Manhattan, at least) laid-back vibe. The
64-room hotel was renamed in 2013 and was until recently part of local hotelier
Ed Scheetz’s Chelsea Hotels group. While the facade is glass and splashy, the
hotel softens upon entry to its green, funky lobby.
Peek outside on a sunny day, and the vibe becomes downright
Vegas-like, with a multilevel pool area accented by blues, yellows and a
healthy dose of salmon hues. On a Friday afternoon, it’s an absolute scene.
More cosmopolitan still is the Wythe Hotel. Built in 1901 as
a textile factory, the property was redeveloped into a 70-room hotel in 2012
with a head start on the industrial-chic design motif that has since been
adopted by countless boutique hotels and a few chains.
Exterior of the William Vale.
With a bustling lobby
and the well-regarded restaurant Reynard, the hotel features rooms with
15-foot-high ceilings, beds made of reclaimed wood and poured-concrete floors.
Upper-level west-facing rooms offer views of the Manhattan skyline, while
guests in lower-level rooms can check out the vintage signs painted on the side
of the brick building next door.
The newer hotels reflect a borough that is playing catch-up
to Manhattan in terms of hotel development. Whereas Manhattan has about as many
hotels in its development pipeline, 70, as were opened during the past two
years, Brooklyn’s pipeline of 29 hotels is more than three times the eight that
have opened in that borough since 2014, according to NYC & Company, the
city’s tourism bureau.
And for good reason. As Manhattan hotel-room pricing has
been hurt by the influx of new properties — and, some say, by the growth in
Airbnb units — Brooklyn has stayed steady. Between 2012 and 2015, the New York
market’s RevPAR as a whole fell about 6%, to $197 a night, which is still the
country’s highest, according to hotel-industry research firm STR.
During the same period, Brooklyn hotels’ RevPAR was up
slightly, to $136 a night, while occupancy stood at 80% last year.
With that in mind, developers continue to open and improve
Brooklyn hotels, and not just in Williamsburg.
Last December, Real Hospitality Group opened the 113-room
Bklyn House in a grittier part of the borough where Bushwick,
Bedford-Stuyvesant and Williamsburg meet. One block from the subway’s M line
that connects South Williamsburg to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the hotel
targets overseas travelers looking for longer stays who can’t afford
Williamsburg or Manhattan room rates, offering WiFi and continental breakfast
gratis. Bursts of orange and white as well as hallway murals further reflect
the hotel’s sunny disposition.
Not to be outdone, downtown Brooklyn also boasts some recent
hotel activity. Located on a busy stretch connecting Flatbush Avenue to the
Manhattan Bridge, the 174-room Dazzler Brooklyn opened last August.
Falling back on the industrial-chic design scheme, the
property, which is the first in the U.S. under Argentina-based Fen Hotels’
Dazzler brand, offsets the freneticism outside with soothing blues and greens
in the lobby.
A little closer to the Barclays Center arena,
InterContinental Hotels Group introduced its Even Hotels wellness-oriented
brand to the borough in late August.
The Wythe Hotel opened in what was previously a textile factory in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood in 2012. Photo Credit: Danny King
The 202-room hotel is looking to appeal to workout fiends
and revelers alike, with amenities such as a two-story “green wall” of live
plants in its gym and beer from the Brooklyn Brewery.
The New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge finished
large-scale renovations earlier this year and put $43 million into updates. At
665 rooms, the hotel, which was built in 1998, is the borough’s largest.
True for a convention-center-oriented hotel, the rooms
remain relatively conservative, with splashy wall murals offset by brown and
gray furnishings and marble desks. Still, the mezzanine level offers a public
area that’s a study in imaginative design when it comes to breaking down large
spaces, while the long, windowside table offers great views of the activity
along Adams Street below.
And the opening of the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, on the
waterfront between the upscale Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo neighborhoods, is
planned within the next few months.
Back in Williamsburg, the borough’s brand of
urban sophistication is clear at the William Vale. The 22-story tower opened
Sept. 8 with 183 rooms. Amenities include a 60-foot pool, the longest in a New
York City hotel, as well as the 15,000-square-foot Vale Park, an elevated green
space accessible to locals as well as to hotel guests.