Friday, August 23, 2013

Riu Times Square 600-Room Hotel to Check In

The Spanish hotel developer that purchased a half-acre development site on the corner of West 46th Street and Eighth Avenue for $111 million last year has begun work to erect a luxury 300,000-square-foot, 600-room hotel tower just a stone’s throw away from Times Square. Demolition work has already reduced the existing structure at 301 W. 46 Street to its second floorThe future five-star hotel is expected to open in mid-2015.

RIU Hotels & Resorts is nearly done demolishing the five-story tenements at 301 W. 46 Street, a development site which RIU purchased after the mortgage wet into default, includes an adjacent vacant lot just north along Eighth Avenue, as well as one to the west along Restaurant Row.

Demolition work the existing structure, an eyesore whose boarded up windows, ground floor porn shop and graffiti scrawled exterior made it look like a throwback to the avenue's gritty days decades ago, has reduced it to its second floor.

The Riu Plaza New York Times Square will be located in the heart of the world’s business capital, and is one of many that have sprung up along Eighth Avenue. Recently, Boston Properties finished a new office tower at 250 West 55th St., home to the city’s major law firms, which has boosted the avenue's credentials as a destination for office tenants.

The new hotel will be surrounded by the most famous theaters on Broadway and next to Restaurant Row, an area that is home to restaurants which invite travelers to sample the latest gastronomic trends.

The hotel’s prime location is in close proximity to the city’s major attractions such as Central Park, Carnegie Hall and the luxury boutiques on Fifth Avenue.

New York City continues to attract visitors, and by 2015 there should be no shortage of people to fill Riu's rooms.

According to a recent report, New York City attracts 538,000 tourists-per-day compared to London, which had 429,000 during the Olympics. New York’s hotel occupancy was also higher at 93 percent compared to London’s 80 percent.

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