Monthly Archives: June 2021

“It was an attractive opportunity to strengthen our participation in the post-pandemic recovery of the New York City hotel sector”, CEO of Square Mile Elliot Rattner said in a statement. “We are confident that travelers to New York will once again want to stay in the center of all the city has to offer. Overall, when complete, this downtown Manhattan property’s unique location, brand affiliations, and various room offerings will create a compelling set of options for a variety of traveler segments.

S3 Capital also provided a $ 230 million senior construction loan for the property.

Officials at McSam, based in Great Neck, New York, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the funding.

Upon completion, the property will include a Hilton branded hotel development consisting of a Home2 Suites, 358 keys Hampton inn and 400 keys Currency. Its amenities will include restaurants, lounges, cafes, breakfast rooms, exercise rooms, select meeting spaces, laundry facilities and a shared rooftop lounge.

Construction is underway and the project is scheduled to open by the end of 2022.

“The funding for this preferred stock investment demonstrates growing market confidence in a strong recovery in the New York hotel industry,” Hakim said in a statement. “A combination of factors such as a prime location in Times Square, top Hilton hotel flags, and top-notch developer sponsorship were all compelling features of this transaction. “

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A Waterloo-based developer has said he would like to start construction this summer on a $ 6.5 million four-story luxury hotel overlooking Sauble Beach.

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Borz Fariborzi, president of Canada House Design & Build, said if all goes according to plan, the excavators should be in the ground on South Bruce Peninsula property during the second week of August.

It will take approximately 16 months to build the Lakeshore Inn, proposed for 119 Lakeshore Blvd. N. and a few steps from the Sauble shore.

“From what I’ve seen and heard, this is the best beach in Ontario,” said Fariborzi, when asked why the company chose Sauble Beach for a hotel development.

He said the company has built many hotels over the years.

The proposed Lakeshore Inn would include 21 units and a restaurant on the ground floor. It will be the only building over two floors across the street, parallel to the beach.

South Bruce Peninsula council is scheduled to hold a public meeting on July 6 at 9 a.m. on a zoning bylaw amendment for the hotel project.

The owner proposes to change the zoning of 122 Second Ave. N. Adjacent to Resort Residence to “General Commercial Unserviced Special” to allow use of this property for parking and onsite sewage treatment and disposal for the hotel.

South Bruce Peninsula Mayor Janice Jackson said it would be interesting to hear what the community thinks about the hotel project during the public consultation process.

She said the city would like to see an increase in tourism during shoulder season, which has proven difficult due to so few accommodation open in winter.

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“This boutique hotel could point us in the right direction and generate new tourism revenue,” she said.

Danielle Edwards, economic development officer for South Bruce Peninsula, said the developer would like the hotel to be open all four seasons. It will employ eight to twelve people, she said.

“This year-round hotel development will provide a tourism infrastructure that will support our efforts to increase tourism development in shoulder and off-season,” she said.

The Lakeshore Boulevard property has been owned by Canada House since at least 2016. That year, the South Bruce Peninsula leased it for $ 8,000 to provide additional paid municipal parking for visitors to Sauble Beach, according to the lawsuit. minutes from the September 2016 board meeting.

Maison Canada is a consulting, structural design and construction company, according to the company’s website.

Its online portfolio includes properties in Waterloo, Ontario, Georgia, United States, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The listed construction costs of the portfolio projects range from $ 190,000 for a house in Waterloo completed in 2007 to $ 27.3 million for the Dubai Police Tower, also completed in 2007.

Another Accor lifestyle hotel brand is heading to the Middle East, the latest in a wave of activity in the Parisian hotel company’s region even as overall hotel development there has remained almost at a standstill since. a year.

Hyde Hotels, Resorts & Residences plans to open its first hotel outside the United States in Dubai, executives of the brand exclusively at Skift announced on Monday. The 276-room hotel will be located in the city’s Business Bay district, near the Burj Khalifa tower, and will feature many food and experience-focused elements that define hotel lifestyle. The Hyde Dubai Business Bay project is expected to open by the end of this year.

This is the latest in a series of recent announcements in the Middle East region from Accor, which opened its first SLS property in Dubai earlier this year and recently announced plans to open a second Raffles in the city ​​at Palm Dubai development.

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The company has other Raffles projects under development in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Accor also partnered earlier this year with Faena, which is underway with a project in Dubai.

Accor’s construction surge comes as the region seeks to reverse a seven-quarter drop in hotel development with more emphasis on leisure travel.

“You have a big push on leisure in the [United Arab Emirates], Oman and Saudi Arabia, ”said Louis Abboud, deputy director of lifestyle brands at Accor, in an interview with Skift ahead of Monday’s announcement. “All of these markets can have significant growth in leisure. They have amazing beaches, their governments are behind them, and I think that’s why they see significant growth coming on this front. “

Accor’s lifestyle push stems from many of the brands it acquired when it was acquired by SBE, such as SLS and Hyde. The two brands are expected to be integrated into Ennismore, Accor’s planned joint venture with the owner of lifestyle hotel brands like Hoxton.

Hilton has the most development projects in the Middle East, with 93 properties in its development pipeline, according to Lodging Econometrics. But Accor has the largest number of hotel rooms in development with 25,882 compared to 25,200 for Hilton.

Accor anticipates even more hotel growth in the region, particularly in Saudi Arabia.

“Saudi Arabia is a market that is really driving and will continue to drive growth in the region,” Abboud said. “Saudi Arabia has made a very bold decision to move away from its dependence on oil.”

Tourism is one of the main sectors that Saudi Arabia wants to diversify its economy into as part of its Saudi Vision 2030 plan to go beyond oil. The planned resorts along the Red Sea coast as well as the planned “smart city” in Neom are major growth opportunities for hotel brands. Accor plans to emphasize its lifestyle brands in its growth strategy in Saudi Arabia, Abboud said without disclosing details.

This emphasis on leisure travel in the region has the potential to reverse the nearly two-year decline in hotel development in the Middle East. The Middle East hotel development pipeline was down 12% at the end of the first quarter, the seventh consecutive quarterly decline for the region.

The pandemic and political tensions are the main reasons for the downward trend. But Dubai garnered a lot of interest from travelers during the pandemic due to its open borders, even though doing so put public health at risk.

A new push to attract tourists as the city’s delayed Expo 2020 later this year and Saudi Arabia’s plans for the Red Sea may offset the decline in development.

“[Saudi Arabia is] develop entire smart cities, and they have the means to do it, ”Abboud said. “It’s a big priority for the future.”

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A £ 12million front door project to bring a Tim Hortons and Taco Bell to the old Mansfield bus station is progressing.

The council-backed “Stockwell Gateway” plans of the ARBA group will replace the pre-existing car park which closed permanently in March.

Boarding is now in place around the site as work begins to progress, with ARBA officially taking possession of the site before its redevelopment.

New raffles will include Canadian coffee, Tim Hortons, alongside Mexican-themed Taco Bell, Domino’s Pizza and a 100-bed national brand hotel.

Council documents released ahead of a meeting next week show that Taco Bell has officially partnered with the program, along with the other two outlets.

And city buyers have expressed their views on what the new additions will mean for the city.

Liam Skillen, 22, from Mansfield, told Nottinghamshire Live: “Well, I’m very happy that Tim Hortons is coming to Mansfield.

“I go to the one in Birmingham every time I visit the city. But I wonder if another restaurant is the best option for this space.

“We need more variety in the cities’ retail and hospitality offering if we are to for Mansfield to thrive in the same way as before.

“But I guess it’s a start, it’s just not the answer to the city’s problems.”

“It should bring a lot of jobs, it should bring Mansfield back to life because right now he’s dead,” said a Mansfield resident who gave his full name.

A Birmingham resident in the city, who also did not give his full name, added: “This is going to be of great help to Mansfield.”

And a worker at the Four Seasons Mall, next to the old bus station, added, “That would be great, that’s a good thing.

With major stores, such as Topshop, having closed in the middle of the Four Seasons, and a few rows of stores in the Rosemary Center remaining vacant, it is hoped that new businesses will bring some life and excitement back to the city.

However, there are still hesitations about the projects of the ARBA Group, which are still in progress.

“Everything is closed so I don’t know why they want to come to Mansfield, because but that’s good,” said another downtown resident.

“It will create jobs for the area, but when? At the moment everything is on hold so I don’t really know what it will bring, but I hope it brings a lot of positive to Mansfield.”

Board documents for next week’s wrap-up and review meeting released an update on the status of plans.

The documents state: “The former bus station site was leased to the ARBA group on the basis of a long-term lease and a building permit was granted in November 2020 for the development of a 100-room hotel. , as well as three catering units.

“Over the past few months, preparatory work, utility and heritage surveys have all been undertaken at the site in preparation for the start of development and the end users of the three catering units have been registered. “

Mansfield District Council approved the £ 12million development in November last year.

At this time, it is unclear which national hotel brand will take over the 100-bed facility once it is completed.

Fortress representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Moskovits declined to comment.

Fortress claims that Moskovits and 232 Seigel Acquisition LLC defaulted on the construction loan in 2019 after failing to complete construction of the 10-story, 97,245-square-foot hotel on the vacant lot between Bushwick Avenue and White Street, according to court records.

As part of the dismissal of the bankruptcy case, a judge ruled that Heritage Equity would pay off the $ 3 million mezzanine loan and allow Fortress to proceed with foreclosure proceedings, saying that Heritage Equity now owed $ 8.2 million for the default, including late fees and interest, according to court documents.

Heritage Equity, led by Moskovits and its business partner Michael lichtenstein, bought the lot at 232 Seigel Street with 15 other sites nearby for $ 28.5 million in 2015, The real deal reported. He filed plans later that year to build a hotel, designed by Morali Architects, with a gym and a restaurant.

In November 2019, Moskovits sued his original lender, Capital City Bridge, to stop the notices of default and acceleration on the $ 5.25 million loan. Fortress bought the debt in January 2020 and Moskovits filed his case, accusing Fortress of “predatory tactics” and only buying the loans to try to take over the project, TRD reported.

Moskovits then withdrew the lawsuit in July, a source told Commercial Observer.

The development of the Bushwick Hotel is not the only struggling asset for Heritage Equity in recent months. Moskovits is facing a multitude of lawsuits and foreclosures for various projects around Brooklyn, including the fitting out of the offices 215 Moore Street, according to TRD.

And, in February, Heritage Equity filed for bankruptcy on its flagship development, the 147 rooms The Williamsburg Hotel, nearly a year after defaulting on his $ 68 million loan.

WILLEMSTAD – Last week, the General Pension Fund of Curaçao (APC) and the Heritage Plaza Consortium (HPC) held several sessions at the Luna Blou Theater to discuss the development of the Plaza area with various stakeholders, reports APC.

The aim of this week was to bring together as many relevant contributions as possible from experts from various sectors in Curacao and build support for the project. The program follows on from the November 2020 visit, to which the late Hans de Boer was also a part.

Since then, the parties have worked hard to draw up the development plans. The HPC team was reinforced with Jan de Jong (heritage expert), Peter Zwart (social and cultural functions advisor) and Bart Akkerhuis (urban development vision advisor) in order to further refine the plan’s vision.

“The Plaza area must contribute to the quality of life in Punda with an attractive multifunctional program in which housing, catering, culture, education, incubators and recreation have a place,” according to APC.

As part of the initiative phase that APC and HPC are currently in, it was decided not to present a ready-made plan to stakeholders last week, but first to listen and collect information before plans are developed. This approach has been welcomed by stakeholders.

According to APC, it was important for the feasibility study to test the programmatic interpretation, discuss the spatial opportunities and challenges, and see how the Plaza project can also give socio-economic impetus to the rest of Willemstad.

The week started with a walking tour of Punda which focused on the connections between the Plaza area and the rest of the city center, UNESCO World Heritage status and the bustling Punda of the past. On Monday evening, the parties visited the Netherlands Representation.

Tuesday was devoted to culture. Various institutions and entrepreneurs active in the cultural sector were present to discuss local and international opportunities. Wednesday started with a presentation of the future government and was followed by a session in which the developments of a start-up community in Curacao were discussed.

The day ended with a workshop focusing on spatial vision and cultural heritage. Groups consisting of architects, heritage experts, parts of monuments and other interest groups set to work to develop a spatial vision for the Plaza area.

Thursday’s program began with a session with the University of Curaçao where opportunities for an educational function were discussed. In the afternoon, the theme “livability in Punda” was central and various parties active in the hospitality and leisure sectors were invited.

The program ended with a visit to the governor. “We look back on a successful week in which attendees actively participated and provided valuable input for further development of the Plaza area. Great anecdotes about the moments of Cave the Neptune, the opportunities of music and the dance as an interpretation for the cultural program, the importance of housing for quality of life, to concerns about the parking problem in the city center and the current state of the Plaza, ”says APC.

APC and HPC got even more excited after this week to work out the plans together. In the coming period, this week’s data will be processed to arrive at a proposed plan.

APC: “The ambitions are high and the challenges are numerous regarding the redevelopment of the Plaza district, but this project also offers great opportunities. The development of Plaza is more than just a real estate project, it is a catalyst for Punda and Curaçao. . “