Everyone saw it coming and last week's website start-booking date of October 15th intimated to folks that the August 19th debut of Aloft Harlem (124th and FDB/8th Avenue) will probably not happen. After checking the website yesterday, Aloft has officially changed the grand opening date to October 15th:
LINK. Construction wise, one can see in the top photo that the huge lift that had been on the side of the building has been deconstructed. Top windows and remaining cornices seem to be last exterior details that need attending to. The lower two photo provide a view of the shaft that existed between the new hotel and one of the neighboring buildings on the south end of FDB. Construction just started in the past three weeks on what looks like some sort of small addition to fill in the space between the neighboring structures. Read more about Aloft in our past post:
LINK. All photos by Ulysses
Everyone saw it coming and last week's website start-booking date of October 15th intimated to folks that the August 19th debut of Aloft Harlem (124th and FDB/8th Avenue) will probably not happen. After checking the website yesterday, Aloft has officially changed the grand opening date to October 15th: LINK. Construction wise, one can see in the top photo that the huge lift that had been on the side of the building has been deconstructed. Top windows and remaining cornices seem to be last exterior details that need attending to. The lower two photo provide a view of the shaft that existed between the new hotel and one of the neighboring buildings on the south end of FDB. Construction just started in the past three weeks on what looks like some sort of small addition to fill in the space between the neighboring structures. Read more about Aloft in our past post: LINK. All photos by Ulysses
Can't wait for this place to open, if anything, to check out the new bar :) A little concerned about the room rates though. Fingers crossed it does well.
ReplyDeleteI am actually quite confident a hotel will do nicely in Harlem. The area is a huge tourist attraction with something like 1.5 million vistors per year. Add to that its proximity to Columbia University and Yankee Stadium. But we'll see. Obviously the rates can't be insane but as I recall they seemed reasonable for NYC (which of course is expensive by most standards).
ReplyDeleteGreenGirl: Agreed. In this day and age, plenty of people do their hotel bookings online, and will consider a range of alternatives within a certain price point. A new hotel of this sort, close to transportation and a number of attractions, should be quite competitive in those terms.
ReplyDeleteIt would take some serious mismanagement to mess that up, and I don't see much reason to think that this large chain would allow such an outcome.
Chris: You may not have to wait as long as October to check out the bar. Per the Aloft web site linked above:
ReplyDelete"We open our doors in early September, and are accepting reservations for stays on or after October 15, 2010."
Looks like the rates are around $330 per room (incl. taxes).
ReplyDeleteCheers Cool Blue, will keep an eye on that. Would have been great if they had built a roof top bar. The night time view from Harlem across the rest of Manhattan is one of the best in the city. Would love to see the Hyatt implement something like that.
ReplyDelete