NYC is getting a bevy of new hotels despite COVID spike

Shaken, but things are stirring. Sure, the city’s hotel biz took a gut punch this year — we lost icons like the Gramercy Park hotel and the ultra-trendy NoMad Hotel — but according to Joel Rosen, president of New York-based GFI Hospitality, a real estate development and investment company, it was no knockout blow. It’s coming back,” said Rosen, whose company opened the Thompson Central Park in November (formerly the Parker). “It’s not robust, but is the hotel business over? No, not at all. New York real estate is historically very resilient.”

He gives the global recession fo 2008 as one example: “It was all doom and gloom but it came back, better than ever,” he said.

Indeed, GFI has seen tremendous hotel development growth this past decade. This summer, the company added Ace Hotel Brooklyn on Schermerhorn Street in Boerum Hill to its New York hotel holdings, which include Ace Hotel New York, the Beekman and the James New York NoMad; all significant projects that have revitalized historic buildings, and even kickstarted neighborhoods like Nomad.

Still, the hotel business is in bad shape and likely won’t fully recover for some time, The Post reported.

“It’s the likes of which I have not seen in my lifetime, and hopefully won’t see again,” said Rosen. “But the demand drivers have come back. The entertainment and leisure activities bounced back. The restaurants came back to resounding enthusiasm from locals and tourists. There is tremendous pent-up demand to travel. And rates have held pretty steady, which is surprising and helpful.”