Hotel Update-o-Rama: Trump Soho Frozen in Time, More!

The May issue of The Real Deal is now available for online perusing, and there's a common thread that runs through the magazine's plentiful hotels coverage: The market stinks! Hotels, condo-hotels, hotels with condos?create your own combination, but if it involves a guy in a bellhop outfit, it's not doing so hot. Of course, this isn't new news, but there's plenty of fresh intel on some specific cases:

1) In a story that sticks a fork in the whole condo-hotel trend, we get new info on the city's two most expensive examples. The Plaza has sold about half of its 152 condo-hotel units (N.B.: These are the units that buyers can only live in 120 days per year, not the full-fledged Plaza condos) at prices starting at $1.5 million, and at the Trump Soho, Donald Trump Jr. says the building is "more than 55 percent sold" and prices have not been reduced from their ~$3,000/sf ask. Back in June, Trump Soho was said to be "up to 60% sold," so it look like things aren't quite picking up in advance of that alleged fall opening. Then again every truth about Trump Soho is kept locked up somewhere inside Donald Trump's hair, so who knows what's really going on down on Spring Street. ['Condo-hotels: gone for good?']

2) As for regular old hotels, TRD reports that at least 43 planned projects?some 10,000 rooms?are in various stages of delay or outright death. That list is topped by Kimpton's supposedly neighborhood-altering Vu Hotel in the Far West Side hinterlands, which is in foreclosure and "can't open until new ownership takes over." Also in foreclosure: the not-yet-started Cambria Suites at 75 Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn. ['10,000 rooms on ice']

3) Equally as shrouded in sales mystery as the Trump Soho is the W Downtown Hotel & Residences in the Financial District, plagued by the Deutsche Bank demolition across the street and various stop work orders. The 57-story tower has yet to top out, but in a lengthy profile on Joseph Moinian, the developer says the hotel portion will be open "by the end of the year." According to PR, however, the hotel will open in June, while the W Hotels web site insists it'll open in 2010. [Moinian's tap dance']

4) And if there wasn't already reason enough to hate this darn recession, along comes hotel developer Sam Chang, who says in a video interview that he actually planned to retire next year, but will now have to keep soldiering on creating such beauty until the market rebounds. So close! ['Recession bumps back Chang's retirement']