Hotel, motel, holiday in the Bronx?
That’s right, the borough is booming — with boutique and luxury hotels.
Plans are in place for hundreds of new rooms across the borough, which has already added several upscale lodging options in recent years.
“We welcome the development that’s going on in the Bronx,” said Douglas Brookman, director of operations for the Empire Hotel Group, which helped to open the Opera House hotel on 149th St. last December. “We’re excited that people recognize that the Bronx is a destination.”
The popular Opera House is only one of a number of boutiques and bed-and-breakfast-style options have been popping up around the mainland borough.
A sleek new 56-room tower in Melrose, dubbed the Umbrella Hotel, is set to start taking reservations by the end of the month.
And plans were filed last week to build a 75-room luxury hotel on the Grand Concourse and 140th St., according to the office of borough president Ruben Diaz Jr.
“It will be a high-end hotel,” developer Sanjay Patel told real estate blog newyorkyimby, which first reported the plans.
A 12-story hotel is already under construction on nearby Exterior St. and E. 146th St., and work has begun on a Comfort Inn on 135th St. and Third Ave.
Some residents are cautious in their assessment of the potential impact the new hotels will have on the blue-collar neighborhoods.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how these hotels play out,” said Melrose native Ed Garcia Conde, who noted that other areas, including Harlem and parts of Brooklyn, were already gentrified when the hotels came in.
“We don’t know yet the effect this will have on the South Bronx,” Garcia added.
Some big names are being drawn to the borough as well.
A 125-room Residence Inn by Marriott is currently under construction at the Hutchinson Metro Center in Pelham Bay.
The seven-story extended-stay hotel will occupy the upper tier of a new 300,000-square-foot building at the heart of the sprawling 42-acre complex.
Many of the hotels in the Mott Haven and Melrose areas are located near transit hubs that offer visitors quick commutes to traditional tourist destinations in Manhattan.
But Garcia said he’s happy that tourists visiting the city will get to experience the Bronx for themselves.
“The people coming in are mostly from Europe,” the blogger said. “And they’re seeing the South Bronx for the first time with their own eyes, which is a good thing.”
