The NYT's Sunday real estate section profiles Richard Born and Ira Drukier, who manage over 20 Manhattan hotels, including the Mercer and the Maritime, from the comfort of their briefcases. The developers' new plans include a new, "very upscale" hotel on a piece of land in Tribeca owned by Robert DeNiro at North Moore and Greenwich Streets. (The hotel, reports the NYT, "would be designed for people who have to relocate to New York for a period of months ? such as actors making a movie in the city.") The developers are also involved with a residential condo project at Bond and Lafayette Streets in Greenwich Village with hotelier Ian Schrager.
Meantime, just when one may have feared the boutique hotel craze had peaked, comes word from Deborah Schoeneman that 60 Thompson owner Jason Pomeranc plans to open two new hotels next year, one at 6 Columbus Circle, and one on the Lower East Side. Of the LES hotel, which will feature 32 luxury condos, plus a spa, swimming pool, and all the other requisite trappings of hell, Pomeranc notes, "Allen Street is an overlooked and neglected frontier." Paging Johnny Knoxville...
· Manhattan: For 2 Hoteliers, a Freewheeling Business Style [NYTimes]
· Hotel Happenings [NYMag, 3rd item]