New Hotels Rising in Three Manhattan Squares

New hotel construction is booing throughout the city. Two brand new hotels are set to open this month on 13th Street, near Union Square Park, along with a newly renovated W New York hotel. However, the trend in hotel expansion runs throughout the borough. Two new hotels are gearing-up to build over 490 rooms near Madison Square Park, while construction of a 192-room Cambria Suites will get underway near Times Square.

Union Square

Two brand new hotels are set to open this month in Union Square. The 18-story art deco Jade Hotel on West 13th Street, and the 178-room Hyatt Union Square, two blocks east on Fourth Avenue.

Both openings were postponed in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy.

With 113 rooms, the art-deco style Jade Hotel will bring the number of new rooms in the Union Square neighborhood to 291, nearly doubling the hotel stock in the area.

One might go so far as to call it a mini hotel boom in the commercial and residential neighborhood—one that mirrors a larger trend in hotel expansion throughout the five boroughs.

Previously, Union Square had been a dead zone within the hotel-rich borough

Competition in the area includes the W New York-Union Square on East 17th Street, which is wrapping up a $15 million gut renovation, and is expected to re-open about the same time as the two new hotels.

Construction at the 11-story Hyatt has been under construction for years and work has been held up multiple times because of violations filed by the city's Department of Buildings.

Madison Square

Clock Tower Hotel:
The old Met Life 'clock tower' building at 5 Madison Avenue and East 23rd Street will be converted in to a 355-room Marriott Hotel. .

Scheduled to re-open in spring 2015 as The Clock Tower Hotel, the building across from Madison Square Park, will have a restaurant, a banquet space, a spa, and a "clock machine room", to operate the gigantic Italian Renaissance clock.

Cambria Suites-Chelsea:
Construction is underway on a 135-suite Cambria Hotel, being developed at 125 West 28th Street in Chelsea.

Star architect Gene Kaufman designed the 18-story building now being developed by We Care Trading Ltd. The new hotel will rise 202 feet and have 56,500 square feet of interior space. Cambria Suites-Chelsea is set to open in the second quarter of 2014.

Times Square

R+B Development has broken ground on a 192-room Cambria Suites hotel at 30 West 46th Street, near Times Square. Noted architect Gene Kaufman also designed this 21-story building.

When completed in the winter of 2014, the Cambria Suites-Times Square will be 229 feet tall and have 81,000 square feet of space. T&R Construction of Astoria, is the general contractor for the project.