Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. is looking to build a hotel in Stamford, according to the city”™s mayor, possibly padding the 800-plus headquarters jobs the hospitality giant is bringing from New York in 2012.
Stamford Mayor Mike Pavia disclosed the hotel”™s plans this month at an economic conference at the University of Connecticut Stamford sponsored by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association and the Stamford Chamber of Commerce.
Starwood took nearly $100 million in state incentives to relocate its main offices from White Plains, N.Y., taking some 240,000 square feet of space at 333 Ludlow St., owned by Building and Land Technology.
The building is adjacent to BLT”™s Harbor Point development, which has long been planned to include a hotel. While Starwood Hotels”™ relocation has had many businesspeople assuming the new hotel would carry a Starwood brand, BLT has yet to reveal any deal. The developer would be unlikely to begin construction until it had a lease in hand.
Nothing is final yet, according to Pavia, but the company”™s initial indications are positive ”“ as are those of other hoteliers.
“They ”¦ are looking to build a hotel ”“ ”˜partnering”™ a hotel in a joint venture or with a commercial developer ”“ under the Starwood banner,” he said. “Not only is it Starwood that”™s looking to build a hotel, but we see that the Hilton is going to be undergoing a major renovation very shortly, and there are other hospitality companies that are looking to raise their flag in the city of Stamford. We have at least two that we”™re currently talking to now, that are looking around to find a good location to put their inn or their hotel.”
Occupancy rates at Manhattan hotels were close to 90 percent in July and August, according to surveys by the New York Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and an increase in business travel has also produced stronger-than-expected results in Massachusetts, according to the Boston Fed. Hotels have been able to charge more, as a result, further helping their bottom line.
According to Smith Travel Research, in the week ending September 4 average daily rates in New York City were up 13 percent from a year earlier, tops in the country.
“Hoteliers have raised their rates, and the consumer continues to travel,” said Chad Church, director of special services at Henderson, Tenn.-based STR, in a statement.
Despite the mini-renaissance in business travel, the tri-state area”™s economy showed signs of decelerating since the last week of July, the New York Fed found, in part due to renewed weakness in the residential housing market due to the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit. That was offset somewhat by a steady commercial real estate market.
The Boston Fed, whose jurisdiction covers all of New England save Fairfield County, had a slightly more upbeat report, though it quoted one respondent quipping, “flat is the new up.”
Still, the second quarter was the fourth straight in which businesses increased capital spending, according to Steven Cochrane, managing director of Moody”™s Analytics, who also spoke at the UConn Stamford economic conference.
“Business investment spending ”¦ has been remarkably strong,” he said.
At a separate CBIA conference in Rocky Hill, the U.S. economics editor with The Economist magazine said that recent bidding wars in mergers are one sign the economy may be coming back.
“That”™s kind of a sign that the animal spirits are back,” said Greg Ip, who is based in Washington, D.C. “It may only be a matter of time before that filters back to hiring.”
