Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. in White Plains will grow its New York City portfolio by 50 percent this year by adding six hotels.
Starwood, which recently signed a lease to relocate its headquarters to Stamford, now operates 12 hotels in Manhattan. The company will bring that number to 18 when it introduces its Aloft and Element brands to the Big Apple.
Earlier this year, Starwood relocated its Manhattan-based luxury and design-led brand teams from Chelsea to a new office at the junction of Soho and Tribeca.
The Manhattan openings include one of Starwood”™s new Element lodgings at Time Square, which the company markets as an “eco-savvy experience” for longer-duration visitors. All told, Starwood will add 1,700 hotel rooms in New York City and 500 jobs; the company stated one of every four new hotel rooms in the city this year will carry a Starwood brand.
“We have more hotels in New York City than any city in the world and we will open more hotels right here in our backyard than anywhere else, which speaks to New York”™s enduring stature as the most global gateway city in the world,” Frits van Paasschen, CEO of Starwood Hotels, said in a statement. “We expect that as masses of travelers from China, India and other emerging markets begin to travel internationally, New York will be at the top of their list. We couldn”™t be more bullish on New York near or long term.”
The company estimated that by next year, 75 percent of its New York portfolio will either be renovated or new construction.
“We have spent the past three years preparing for New York City’s economic recovery by working closely with our proven development partners on the right properties in the right places,” said Starwood”™s President of North America Division Denise Coll.
“As a result, we”™re ready to meet the resurgence in demand for our high-quality lifestyle brands in neighborhoods across the city.”
