Developers in New York City are turning hotels that once housed migrants into more than 1,100 permanent housing units, The Wall Street Journal reports. They’re taking the opportunity to turn several hotels into affordable housing, student housing or standard residential apartments in response to housing demands in the Big Apple.
For instance, a Hilton hotel near JFK Airport in Queens has been converted and rebranded as the Baisley Pond Park Residences. It will serve as affordable housing for people with limited incomes. Also, a Holiday Inn hotel in the Financial District of Manhattan is being turned into student housing.
David Schwartz with the Slate Property Group tells The Journal that more than a dozen hotels could be converted into housing units.
Benefits and challenges of hotel conversions
The number of new apartments being created by converting hotels is small compared to the outsized demand for housing in New York City. So, these conversions won’t fix the housing demand. However, the new residents could improve individual neighborhoods by increasing foot traffic, attracting new people and supporting local shops and services.
Since 2022, NYC has spent $8 billion sheltering migrants, as required by its law to house all unhoused people. By early 2024, over 54,000 migrants were staying in hotels used as emergency shelters.
Schwartz said it’s easier to convert a hotel into residences because of zoning laws, and the hotel’s design usually makes the renovation process faster, allowing them to complete it in a shorter period compared to building an apartment building from scratch.
Stigma and legal barriers remain
Hotels that were used to house migrants may carry a stigma, which can create additional challenges for owners, such as hurting the hotel’s reputation or making it harder to attract future guests.
“It has to relaunch as something totally different,” Michelle Russo, CEO of the consulting firm hotelAVE, told the WSJ.
The Roosevelt Hotel, once one of NYC’s main migrant shelters and arrival centers, has now closed. Despite its size and location, developers tell The Journal it’s unlikely to reopen as a hotel or be converted into housing.
Turning hotels into affordable housing in New York City has been difficult due to strict rules, even with state funding from a 2021 law, according to the WSJ. The Baisley Pond Park Residences is the first to succeed under this law.
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Author: Bast Bramhall
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