Hyatt Hotels Corp. is seeking to make its Park Hyatt New York, opening next month at the base of the ultra-luxury One57 condominium tower, Manhattan’s first new five-star hotel in more than a decade.
The 25-floor property is making its debut on West 57th Street in the area known as Billionaires Row for its residential skyscrapers with apartments costing tens of millions of dollars. Plans for the Park Hyatt call for 210 guest rooms starting at $795 a night, spa-treatment suites with private balconies, and amenities such as an indoor pool with underwater speakers that pipe in music from neighboring Carnegie Hall.
Hyatt is seeking a competitive edge in Manhattan, where it already operates seven properties, none rated five stars, said Steve Haggerty, global head of real estate and capital strategy for the Chicago-based company. The new Park Hyatt would be the city’s first hotel with the coveted distinction since 2003, when the Mandarin Oriental opened in the nearby Time Warner Center. Since then, most growth in the city’s lodging market has been in the select-service category, hotels that offer few amenities and cost less to operate.
“There’s a fairly deep demand for this level of luxury,” Haggerty said in an interview from a suite on the Park Hyatt’s eighth floor. “It’s very difficult to replicate in New York City, and there’s a certain barrier to entry.”
Just six hotels that are considered luxury have opened in New York in the past five years, according to lodging-research firm STR Inc. That compares with 51 projects in the three lower- tier categories, which comprise such select-service brands as Holiday Inn, Best Western and Super 8.
Most Expensive
New York was the most expensive U.S. city to stay in this year through May, with rooms costing an average of $241 a night, STR data show. Luxury hotels citywide led the nation in occupancy with a rate of 89.4 percent in May, meaning they sold nine out of 10 rooms every night.
New York’s lodging industry also has been expanding faster than the nationwide pace, with 74 new hotels and more than 13,500 rooms opening since 2006, according to NYC & Co., the city’s marketing and tourism website. About 15,000 more rooms are expected in the next three years, bringing the total to more than 107,000.
“New York City is just hot,” said Jan Freitag, senior vice president at Hendersonville, Tennessee-based STR. “It’s expensive and is at this perfect intersection of transient business demand, group and leisure, and international demand. Everyone wants to come to New York.”
Costly Extras