New York City’s Rockefeller Center will soon have its first hotel – a situation created by a surplus amount of empty offices.
The Wall Street Journal reported Aspen Hospitality is planning to renovate 10 floors of vacant office space above the NBC “Today” show studios into a luxury hotel. The plan will require city approval and the new 130-room lodging establishment will be branded as the Little Nell Hotel, with a planned 2026 opening date.
Rockefeller Center’s office space is 93%-leased, but most of its 14 office buildings are between 50% to 60% occupied midweek, according to Tishman Speyer, which manages the complex’s day-to-day operations. The 84-year-old complex has recently seen new additions to attract more visitors, including the addition of a summertime roller skating platform above the wintertime ice skating rink and the addition of several new retailers and restaurants.
“If New Yorkers are excited about what’s going on at Rockefeller Center—the restaurants, the retail, the art, the arrival of a hotel—then they will want to have their office here, they’ll want to shop here, they’ll want to come here,” said E.B. Kelly, a senior managing director at Tishman Speyer and head of Rockefeller Center.
Photo courtesy of Andrew Dallos / Flickr Creative Commons
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