Manhattan Has A New Hotel Hot Spot

If you ask travelers where they want to stay on their next trip to New York City, do they ever mention NoMad? Do you?

 

The neighborhood “NOrth of MADison Square Park”—technically, the area between East 25th and East 29th Streets, Sixth Avenue to Madison Avenue—is the hottest and hippest part of the Big Apple right now. And where hip people gather, hotels soon follow.

 

The district has added 3,150 new rooms (up 25%) in the past five years, according to Smith Travel Research (STR), but still hasn’t been able to keep up with demand. It sells out 9 of every 10 hotel rooms nightly.

 

“The idea of a district within Manhattan is not a new concept,” said Paul Breslin, managing director of the Atlanta office of Horwath HTL, a hospitality advisory firm.  “What is new is how cool, or ‘lit’ this area has become. Just look at the energy and activity in this area, not to mention the adaptive reuse of some very famous buildings. NoMad is one of the hottest districts in Manhattan.”

 

The Gansevoort Park Avenue, about five years old, is one of the grand dames of the recent spurt of new hotels in the region. Gemma Keating, corporate director of sales at Gansevoort Hotel Group, said the property is very popular with guests from their mid-30s to mid-50s. She says the draw for many guests is being only a short walk from popular tourist sites like Times Square and Rockefeller Center, while still being located close to more subdued neighborhoods like Gramercy Park and Madison Square Park.

 

NoMad is surrounded by other hip neighborhoods like Chelsea to the west, Murray Hill to the northeast, and the Flatiron District to the south, offering travelers a wide array of dining and retail options.

 

While the Gansevoort Park Avenue has been doing well getting its name out, this year it was accepted into Virtuoso’s hotel program, which “has allowed us to further penetrate this market and introduce the property and area to the travel agent community,” Keating said.

 

More recent hotel openings include properties like the 313-room INNSIDE New York NoMad and The Redbury, which officially opened in October. The 20-story INNSIDE is Melia Hotels International’s second property in the United States.

 

“With more than 111,000 hotel rooms across the City’s five boroughs and 24,000 more on the way, the NoMad district is just one neighborhood that has seen a surge in hotel development,” said Chris Heywood, SVP of global communications for NYC & Company.  “In addition to brands such as Arlo NoMad, Ace Hotel New York and The Redbury New York investing in the area, we look forward to welcoming even more global brands such as Virgin Hotels in the near future.”

 

Value-priced chic
According to STR, NoMad hotels charged an average of 20% less than the overall average for Manhattan hotels through the first 10 months of this year. But those lower prices don’t necessarily mean lower value.

 

Many of the hotels are gaining fame for their design and atmosphere. The 90-room HGU was recently featured in the December issue of Conde Nast Traveler, which cited its late-night jazz bands and Frette bedding.

 

Conde Nast also noted the 265-room Redbury hotel. The Redbury originally opened in 1903 as the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel in New York to provide housing for single professional women. Today, the décor reflects the area’s connection to what once was “Tin Pan Alley,” where the American music industry flourished during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

 

Then there’s the Paul, a 117-room hotel on 29th Street, near Sixth Avenue, that just celebrated its one-year anniversary.

 

“I love to recommend trendy hotels like The Paul,” said Camille Pepe Sperrazza, owner of TheWorldAwaitsTravel in New York. She recently took a cruise out of Manhattan, and speaking to other cruise passengers noted, “I got a sense that they stayed at the typical hotels uptown, going with the cruise line recommendations or the big chains.”

 

Sperrazza also recommends The Giraffe, a few blocks south and east of the Redbury, as well as The Elysee and The Library.

“They all offer perks like breakfast, wine and cheese starting at around 5 p.m., and snacks throughout the day,” Sperrazza said. “In New York, where it costs $5 for a cup of Starbucks, this provides clients with great value for money. Many visitors to New York are unaware of these options, so a New York-based agent can be a great asset.”

 

Even more rooms will be coming on line in the next few years. Construction recently started on the 39-story, 465-room Virgin Hotel, rising just across the street from the Paul. The 108–room Made hotel, which also was cited by Conde Nast for its design elements, will open in February 2017, and the Redbury’s sister hotel, the SLS Park Avenue, is scheduled to open end of Q1 2017, a spokesperson said.