Retail

So much for the hotel boom.

The AP is reporting that shares of hospitality companies are tanking amid a gloomy outlook for travel in 2009.

New York-based companies Morgans Hotel Group and Starwood Hotel & Resorts were among those with the steepest declines during the Dow's overall 777-point freefall on Monday:

Starwood shares dropped $3.39, or 11.2 percent, to $26.88 in afternoon trading, after touching a 5-year low of $25.95 earlier in the session. Morgans Hotel shares lost $1.61, or 12.9 percent, to $10.83.

How will the financial crisis impact the city's ever-higher tourism projections? Will less demand for rooms trigger a drop in skyrocketing hotel rates?

Stay tuned.

From the Sunday Washington Post:

Renowned defense lawyer Edward W. Hayes, a self-described night owl, long ago developed two measurements for gauging the ups and downs of Wall Street: the HEGI and the HESI, which stand for High End Girlfriend Index and High End Stripper Index. When the financial sector's business is good, he said, the traders and bankers spend huge sums on high-end girlfriends and in the VIP rooms of Manhattan's pricey strip joints.

Now, said Hayes, who represents many of the woman [sic] in the business, he is seeing evidence of the downturn.

"The strippers are getting killed -- it's terrible," he said. "It really started in the last month. What they really need are the guys who go in and spend $500."

That's what Brownstoner's reporting. Evidently, according to a source within the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which must sign off on development on the Gowanus site at Third Street and Third Avenue, the store's a no-go. Besides:

[E]vidently the trend in the supermarket biz has swung away from superstores, our source notes; in addition, in the wake of poor earnings this summer, Whole Foods announced that it would be cutting back on the number of new stores next year. The likely upshot? Even if Whole Foods decided to open a smaller store in Brooklyn, says our source, it's unlikely it would want to use this site.

The Wall Street Journal's Rachel Dodes lays out the real problem facing even luxury retailers this holiday shopping season: psychology. According to the chief executive of the company that owns Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga, Francois Henri Pinault, "There will always be rich people, but it's the mindset" that drives their spending.

Neiman Marcus' C.F.O. concurs:

James Skinner ... said that news of the financial turmoil is ubiquitous and that is negatively affecting the mood of consumers, who otherwise can still afford expensive clothes, shoes and jewelry. "The best customers never lose the ability to spend," Mr. Skinner added. But "there's an emotional impact" because of the coverage.

New York City hotels last month benefited from the highest average occupancy rate in four years, according to the latest figures from NYC & Company.

The city's tourism office reported an average occupancy rate of 92.4 percent in August. The average daily rate edged upward about a buck from July to $285.84.

That's $20 higher than in August 2007, but still about $40 less than this past June, when a typical night cost $325.94.

Hotel rates should only increase over the next several months, as the city's various lodges hit peak travel season.

Last September, the average overnight stay cost $340.33. Rates last November and December hovered around $370.

Bartender extraordinaire Sasha Petraske might just be stuck brewing coffee at Mercury Dime on East Fifth Street, after local Community Board 3 again declined to support his aspirations of alcohol service, according to Eater.

Grub Street adds a splash of drama, noting that the Milk & Money maestro "must have assumed his fate, as he didn't show at the meeting."

Still, his pint dreams probably aren't completed crushed by the community board's rejection.

The vote is only advisory, and other bars, notably including the Beatrice Inn, have succeeded in slinging drinks, despite neighborhood protests. That being said, the ruling New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) has tended to lend a more sympathetic ear to the various community boards' whims in recent years.  read more »

Neighbors protesting the trendy Beatrice Inn's effort to renew its liquor license were outraged last week to find out that they were effectively wasting their breath.

By the time the issue had come to local Community Board 2 for a vote on Sept. 18, the hip celebrity hangout's renewal had already been approved by the State Liquor Authority .

"Advise us on how to get rid of this place," pleaded one aghast neighbor.

Raymond Lee, chairman of the board's SLA committee, explained that there was really little that the panel could do because -- despite allegations of the popular hot spot's "coke den" reputation -- the Beatrice on 285 West 12th Street had no record of violations with the SLA (an apparent prerequisite for nixing a renewal).  read more »

Since 2002, Williamsburg-Greenpoint has lived without a movie theater. The absence is especially surprising given the area's history of film exhibition: At one point, the neighborhoods boasted six movie theaters in less than five square miles. But since the 1950s, the theaters have been slowly disappearing, converted to other uses or demolished.

"If you're making some amount of money showing movies there," said Patrick Crowley, the co-founder of CinemaTreasures.com, a Wikipedia-like site devoted to cinema preservation, "and a developer says, 'I can give you a ton of money to have development on top of the theater,' then it's hard to say no to that.  read more »

"I think we've broken the curse," said Dustin Cappelletto, co-owner of the forthcoming Travertine restaurant at 19 Kenmare Street, after a divided Community Board 2 narrowly voted 17 to 14 to support the eatery's liquor license during a contentious meeting on Thursday night.

"It's a dream come true," added his teary sister and partner, Danae Cappelletto, who hoped to open the two-level, 2,800-square-foot Mediterranean restaurant in January.

The Cappellettos are the fourth proposed operators to take a crack at the embattled former site of Little Charlie's Clam House.

Hollywood impresario Ivan Kane had initially intended to open an East Coast version of his Forty Deuce burlesque club in the space more than a year ago, before  read more »

What a great week to launch a new restaurant in the Financial District!

“We’re all nervous about what’s happening with the economy, but we’ve got to charge through it,” said chef Todd English, dressed like an urban Johnny Cash in all black, as he celebrated the opening of his latest eatery, Libertine, at the Gild Hall hotel on Gold Street on Wednesday night.

“There’s no right time or wrong time to open a place like this,” added hotelier Jason Pomeranc. “It is our duty as hoteliers and restaurateurs to provide the inns and watering holes where people can celebrate their victories and mourn their losses.  read more »

An ongoing dispute with an upstairs neighbor continues to create more legal headaches for David Kaplan, proprietor of the popular yet embattled East Village cocktail lounge Death & Co.

Mr. Kaplan, who is also suing the State Liquor Authority over its decision to not renew his liquor license, has now filed for a court injunction barring landlord P.V.P. Management from evicting his bar, located at 433 East Sixth Street, over alleged noise issues.

The tenant living directly above the bar, identified in court papers as Joseph Hurley, has claimed that "repeated and forcible closing of the [bar's] front door ... causes a severe and unreasonable amount of vibration" in his apartment.  read more »

Celebrity chef Mario Batali's critically acclaimed Del Posto restaurant earned a more dubious distinction on Sunday, when state Senator Jeff Klein set up outside to announce his second annual round-up of New York City's dirtiest restaurants.

Mr. Batali's three-star eatery on 10th Avenue flunked a city health inspection this past June, racking up a total of 44 violation points for pest problems and spoiled food -- "proving that even world class kitchens cannot afford to scrimp on pest control," according to Senator Klein's office.

If Mr. Batali is interested, this reporter happens to know some good exterminators.

However, Del Posto was far from the city's filthiest eatery.  read more »

After three years of court fights with booze- and noise-wary neighbors over its liquor license and live music program, embattled Lola restaurant at 5-15 Watts Street has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In addition to mounting unpaid legal bills -- nearly $100,000 and counting -- proprietors Gayle Patrick-Odeen and Tom Patrick-Odeen also owe landlord Vornado Realty more than $100,000 in back rent, "as a result of [their] inability to generate significant income from [the restaurant's] trademark live performances," according to court papers.

On Aug. 20, Vornado threatened to terminate the restaurant's 15-year lease if the money was not paid in full. The restaurant has filed for bankruptcy in order to "preserve its valuable leasehold interest," the court papers show.

The restaurant is now "holding 3 nightly performance sets in hopes of successfully rebounding from their financial setbacks."

I have yet to stay a night at The Jane -- Bowery Hotel honchos Eric Goode and Sean MacPherson's trendy makeover of the old downtrodden Hotel Riverview at 113 Jane Street.

But industry blog Hotel Chatter recently checked in and came away with this video-enhanced report on its tiny, 50-square-foot rooms, its "baked-in aroma" of body odors, its noisy A/C units, and its strange interactions between overnight guests and the low-rent SRO tenants that the new guys in charge just can't seem to get rid of:

When you plod down the hallway for a middle-of-the-night pee, The Jane takes on a sort of dorm-like air, except that your neighbor isn't the star of your school's rugby team but some old guy in his boxers watching The Simpsons with his door cracked.

Still, only $99 a night--whatta bargain!

Back in March, this reporter was dismayed to discover that charming restaurateur Toney Edwards had finally lost his long, drawn-out legal fight to protect his beloved French bistro Le Madeleine from the wrecking ball.

Landlord Mark Scharfman was reportedly planning to tear down the single-story structure on West 43rd Street and replace it with a multi-story residential building.

Now, adding insult to injury, I come to find out, via the blog Lost City, that Mr. Scharfman has installed a new tenant in Le Madeleine's place -- specifically, another French bistro called Le Petit Un Deux Trois. Incroyable!

"...it has to make you wonder by the landlord insisted on kicking Le Madeleine to the curb. Was it personal between the landlord and the restaurant owner, Tony Edwards, who always insisted Scharfman couldn't legally tear the building down. Did the economy foil Scharfman's plans? Or maybe Un Deux Trois just offered more money."

"Good riddance! Throngs of confused people meandering knee-deep in trash blown from unattended-to garbage cans. Nice! Really, really nice! There are many other cleaner, safer, better beaches and boardwalk attractions so close in Jersey... Coney Island doesn't even have a shell store or decent restaurant associated with its beach area." ["Advantage Sitt! Astroland Closing for Good"]

Coney Island's Astroland will have its last day this Sunday. Then it's over for the iconic amusement park, according to reports out this afternoon. A deal couldn't be reached by 1 p.m. today between Astroland's operator and its landlord Joseph Sitt, who has big plans for the area (if the city doesn't get its way first).

Here's the Post's take. Here's an emailed statement from Lynn Kelly, president of the Bloomberg administration's Coney Island Development Corporation:

Today’s announcement that Astroland will close after 46 years should be a serious wake-up call to those who have stood back and watched as the fate of Coney Island has been left in limbo without any safeguards for its future.

 read more »

The Federal Reserve released on Wednesday its every-six-weeks anecdotal take on the national economy called The Beige Book. Here's a grab-bag of ultimately meh numbers for New York City:

• Broadway theaters report that business "improved moderately" in July and early August compared to the six weeks before. Attendance and ticket revenues increased 1 to 2 percent annually in July and 3 percent in the first half of August.
• Average Manhattan apartment asking rents declined 2 to 4 percent in July and August compared to the same months last year (more on falling rents here). And: "The rental vacancy rate, though still below 2 percent, is reported to have climbed noticeably over the past year."
• More home sales are falling through due to tighter financing. The sales markets in Brooklyn and Queens were worse for sellers than in Manhattan.
• The number of construction permits issued in June for multi-family buildings was four times greater than in the same month in 2007. And the first half of 2008 saw 63 percent more multi-family building permits issued than the first half of 2007.

 read more »

From Crain's:

Despite the drop in business from Wall Street firms, New York hotel bookings are strong this summer. But hoteliers are worried that their industry will take a big hit next year if the economy worsens.

Local hotels’ key corporate account business has weakened considerably in 2008, with a 15%-25% reduction in bookings from Wall Street firms, notes Sean Hennessey, chief executive of Lodging Investment Advisors.

Michael O'Connell, scion of Red Hook real estate mogul Greg O'Connell, is taking charge of a project to move the recently closed Cheyenne diner from its Chelsea location to a seaside spot in Brooklyn.

Mr. O'Connell, 37, has worked on developments with his father since he was 7. "It's hard to do anything on my own, my dad and I do pretty much everything hand and hand," he said. "But, yeah, this was definitely more my idea, and I'm taking the lead on this."

The Cheyenne was forced to close this April to make way for a nine-story apartment building being erected by the diner's landlord, George Papas, at 33rd Street and Ninth Avenue.  read more »

Daniel Boulud expounds upon his new Maison Boulud in Beijing in the August/September issue of Haute Living (a magazine that managed to turn four under our radar--happy birthday!). The site of the eatery, Mr. Boulud's first overseas restaurant, has an interesting pedigree:

Set just minutes from the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, the restaurant’s location is the former American Embassy to the Qing Dynasty [China's last imperial dynasty]. It is where Henry Kissinger conducted secret meetings with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and where the Dalai Lama was in residence from 1951 to 1959. It is an absolute honor to be able to call such an iconic setting my Maison à Pékin.

(To his credit, nowhere in the Haute Living piece does Mr. Boulud turn the phrase "Peking duck.")

Above is a YouTube clip of Mr. Boulud in the kitchen of Maison Boulud.

"Holy shit. As a resident of the greater AC region--and as someone who is a bit ambivalent about the fact that I'm from here--all I can say is fuck off, douchebags. Whatever inherent (albeit at times ironic) charm Atlantic City might offer doesn't need to be helped along by any hipster dilettantes. You're the reason I stay here instead of moving to Philly or Brooklyn. Seriously, YOU RUIN EVERYTHING! A Minor Threat Lacoste shirt? C'mon. . ." ["Beatrice by the Beach"]

Gay-rights activist Storme DeLarverie -- who famously punched a cop during the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion -- will be honored tonight during an exhibit of artworks at the famously arty Chelsea Hotel, where Ms. DeLarverie also resides.

"The Stonewall Veterans Association is bringing the blue Cadillac for Storme," said event organizer and abstract painter Susan Olmetti, referring to the convertible Ms. DeLarverie often commandeers for the city's annual Gay Pride Parade.

The event, which begins at 6 p.m. at the famous hotel, located at 222 W. 23rd St., will also feature live portraiture by noted artist Antony Zito.

Full details are as follows:

MEDIA AVAILABLE: Aug.  read more »

Scarpetta chef Scott Conant may be "too modest" to say it, but here's proof that Italian is the new French.

Literally, in this case: beloved former French bistro Cocotte in Park Slope is being converted into some type of red-sauce joint, described simply as an "Italian restaurant," according to some new signage posted on the premises.

Cocotte, one of this author's favorites in the neighborhood, was suddenly shuttered back in February, with chef and co-owner Bill Snell blaming stiff competition along Fifth Avenue, the Slope's premier restaurant row.

Vornado Realty Trust isn't hell-bent on demolishing the historic Hotel Pennsylvania, anymore -- but it's putting the paperwork in place, just in case.

Vornado recently applied for a Certification of No Harassment from the city, which, if granted, would by no means guarantee demolition but is apparently a prerequisite for tearing down the semi-grungy hotel across from Penn Station.

Vornado, which owns that site and many others in the area, hasn't made up its mind on what to do with the hotel (at least not publicly), and last word was that the company would do one of three things: put a giant office tower in its place, put a smaller office tower in its place with large retail, or simply spruce up the hotel.  read more »

“We’ve been suffering ever since they moved in [six years ago],” said Sean Sweeney, director of the SoHo Alliance and Greene Street resident, who ticked off a litany of complaints ranging from noise from steam cleaning the façade in the middle of the night or from the HVAC equipment on the roof to the hordes of people who line up for new gadgets — and allegedly leave behind heaps of trash.

The final straw — which prompted Sweeney to fire off a letter this week to elected officials — was last Tuesday’s Jonas Brothers concert held at the store, attracting thousands of screaming tweeners for several hours to Sweeney’s block “like it was Shea Stadium and the Beatles.

 read more »

The media hubbub surrounding Toys in Babeland's opening in Park Slope earlier this summer ranged from a Post screamer ("Sex-Toy Shop Has Bad Vibes in Park Slope") to a Daily Intel piece about how Internet buzz on the new store was largely favorable. In between, the Daily News informed that the shop would have a baby changing table to cater to the famously family-friendly hood, a tidbit that netted Babeland’s owners an irate phone call from Focus on the Family.

So how's business going now that the store's been open a couple months?

"We're doubling our sales projections," says Claire Cavanah, one of Babeland's owners.  read more »

Self-described "die-hard rock fan" Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined music legends Billy Joel and Clive Davis today in announcing the development of a new 25,000-square-foot annex to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, located at 76 Mercer Street in Soho.

The new annex, opening in November, will include such priceless artifacts as Johnny Ramone's Mosrite guitar and the graffiti-clad phone booth from defunct legendary rock club CBGB.

"We're in a landmarked area of great cast-iron buildings," Joel Peresman, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said of the location, which was picked "for a variety of reasons," he added.  read more »

New data from the city's tourism agency, NYC & Company, indicates that nightly hotel rates shot up to $350 on average in May. That's an increase of $50 from the same time last year.

Suddenly, the current minimum $249 nightly rate at the dumpy Hotel Pennsylvania (pictured right) doesn't seem quite so steep.

Tonight, according to Expedia.com, you can also stay at the Paramount, Hilton, New Yorker and Roosevelt hotels for less than $300.

Book now!

Celebrity hotelier Robert De Niro's notoriously secretive Greenwich Hotel has finally allowed another media outlet, besides Vanity Fair, to peak inside its exclusive chambers. Sort of.

Hotel Chatter - which had its own reservation revoked in April - directs us to this recent Newsweek review of Bobby D.'s lodge, which briefly discusses the rooms, the food, and the decor of this supposed "below-the-radar" hotel.

What, no mention of that posh illegal penthouse?

Not since Zack Morris has a name been so often associated with the word preppy than Dorrian's Red Hand, an unabashedly anti-hip bar on 84th Street and Second Avenue.

Dorrian's became notorious during the investigation that led to the conviction of so-called "preppy killer" Robert Chambers, a Dorrian's patron, in 1988. But, for a close-knit cadre of boarding school-educated, liberal arts degree-toting young professionals, living uptown and toiling away at investment banks, PR firms, auction houses and the like, it is better known as "Club D."

In a city where neighborhood haunts morph into velvet-roped nightspots or are gobbled up by Duane Reade in the blink of an eye, the dark wood, red-checkered interior of Dorrian's has changed very little over the past decade, though it looks like they are doing some sort of renovation at the moment.  read more »

American Apparel's opening its 20th New York City location at 429 Broadway, at the corner of Howard Street, in Chinatown, Racked reports. For a full list of actual and coming AA stores, click here. For an explanation of why its storefronts are so damn bright, click here.

The literary landmark Algonquin Hotel hosted a feline fashion show and birthday party on Thursday in honor of Matilda, the famous inn's finicky house cat, now 13.

"I hope we get to see the cat's pajamas," quipped one quick-witted attendee, as guests sipped $20 purr-tinis while cooing at the various costumed kitties in the hotel's famed Round Table Room.

But something was missing. "We can't find Matilda," an organizer confessed.

The resident blue-eyed Ragdoll -- who was rumored to have been hiding out in the hotel's Blue Bar -- will just have to get used to having other critters around.

The splashy celebration, which benefitted the North Shore Animal League, also marked the beginning of a new pet-friendly policy at the Algonquin, which had previously prohibited guests from checking in their own animals.  read more »

"WOW - I love this idea - I would LOVE LOVE LOVE a Costco in my neighborhood (actually I would prefer SuperTaget but Costco is great too) - I love cheap stuff and I'm tired of paying $5 for Corn Flakes - build it, build it, build it." ["Remember Trump City?"]

With government stimulus checks mostly spent, July was a gloomy month for retailers. WWD took a toll of the national chains that either fell short of expectations or took a hit last month--or both--compared to July 2007.

Sales were up 3 percent year-over-year at Wal-Mart, falling short of the 3.4 percent boost analysts predicted. The nation’s largest retailer prepared investors for a tough August as well, estimating a 1 to 2 percent increase.  read more »

• Target’s sales fell 1.2 percent annually.
• Kohl’s dropped 10.4 percent.
• J.C. Penney's were down 6.5 percent.
• Neiman Marcus' sales were down 1.7 percent.
• Saks were down 5.3 percent.
• Nordstrom’s same-store sales dropped 6.

The New York Post's Steve Cuozzo today pleaded with state regulators not to revoke the liquor licenses of seven Cipriani restaurants and banquet halls around town:

It would...cost more than 1,000 jobs, leave our most iconic celebration spaces empty for the foreseeable future, and knock the fizz out of the city's culture of excess - the golden goose that keeps the talent-fleeing, jobs-hemorrhaging "Empire State" afloat.

Apparently, new State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.) commissioner Jeanique Green is a big Post reader.

This morning, Ms. Green cast the deciding vote to accept a $500,000 penalty in lieu of yanking the licenses, thus allowing the Cipriani empire to stay in business.  read more »

"Oh great, just what the neighborhood needs -- ANOTHER luxury high rise for foreigners with euros who do not even live here or for the 1/10 of 1% of any NYers with any money left -- hear about recession? And yet ANOTHER Whole Foods and other retailers to further congest an already congested area -- did we mention the AM & PM gridlock from 63nd Street & 2nd Avenue to 55th Street daily and the ever increasing volume in and out on the 59th Street Bridge? Has the Mayor and everyone else 'in charge' completely lost their minds about this particular intersection ?" ["Whole Foods to Open on Second Avenue"]