Brooklyn Construction Booming: Hip Hotel On The Rise

Here's the latest vision for a hip new boutique hotel coming soon to Downtown Brooklyn.

Long Island City-based V3 Hotel is planning to break ground Dec. 11 on the $60 million, 23-story Hotel Indigo on Duffield Street featuring 180 amenity-rich rooms, a rooftop bar, a swanky restaurant and 17,000 square feet of new retail.
"This is definitely a higher-end hotel than what we're used to seeing in Brooklyn," said V3 CEO Ben Nash.

The project is just part of 1,973 new hotel rooms slated to come to the borough's downtown area by 2012 - and that doesn't include another 225 hotel rooms expected to be built within the long-delayed Brooklyn Bridge Park project, records show.
Currently, the only major hotel serving the downtown area is the 637-room New York Marriott on Adams Street.

Joe Chan, president of the public-private Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, said building a new hotel in the Big Apple was once considered trendy only if it was below 96th Street in Manhattan but that has changed citywide - "especially in Brooklyn, which has become a tourist destination in itself."

He noted planned draws like an arena for the NBA's Nets and the expansion of the Brooklyn Academy of Music Cultural District.

But not everyone is enamored with the hotel projects.

"We don't need hotels for rich people from out of town; we need services for our community," said Diana Smith, a Fort Greene resident and board member for Families United for Racial and Economic Equality.

Designed by renowned architect Karl Fischer, the Hotel Indigo is expected to be complete in late 2009.

Known Hotels in Development

• The Smith, 75 Smith St., 93 rooms. Boymelgreen Developers and Meltzer/Mandl Architects.
• 32-38 Nevins St., 180-200 rooms. McSam Hotel Group with Michael Kang Architect.
• Cambria Suites 75 Schermerhorn St., 300 rooms. Choice Hotels and Perkins Eastman Architects.
• Hotel Indigo, 237 Duffield, 180 rooms. V3 Hotel Management and Karl Fischer Architect.
• Holiday Inn, 300 Schermerhorn, 250 rooms. Tyler Hospitality and Gene Kaufman Architect.
• NY Marriott at Brooklyn Bridge Expansion, 333 Adams St., 280 rooms (already open). Muss Development and William B. Tabler Architects.
• Sheraton/Aloft, 216 Duffield, 500 rooms combined. The Lam Group and Gene Kaufman Architects.
• Atlantic Yards’ Miss Brooklyn, 150 rooms. Forest City Ratner and Frank Gehry Architect.