New 300+ room hotel to rise near Herald Square

Long-time owners of a site where a Howard Johnson hotel once stood plan to put up one of their own. Owners have built a retail property on another portion of the site

By Amanda Fung

The Herald Square area is getting a new hotel. It is slated to rise right behind the new low-rise retail building on West 34th Street, between Seventh and Eighth avenues, where shoe and accessory retailer DSW opened earlier this month.

The owner of the 7,357-square-foot lot located at 218 W. 35th St. has been in discussions with three different hotel operators and is working on finalizing financing for the project, according to sources. Owner 34th Street Penn Association plans to build a 28-story hotel boasting as many as 330 rooms. The cost of the development could not be determined immediately.

The planned hotel is still in its early stages, but excavation on the site is well underway and the foundation is already being poured. Final paperwork has not been filed with the city Buildings Department, but SRA Architects has been hired, a source said.

Owner 34th Street Penn Association is a partnership between three different families. One of the partners of the company confirmed that a hotel was planned, but did not elaborate.

The firm has owned the mid-block lot as well as 213 W. 34th St., where it recently opened a four-story retail building, for close to 30 years, according to public records. DSW leases 33,000 square feet in the new property. A Howard Johnson hotel stood on both sites until several years ago when 34th Street Penn Association terminated the hotel's lease and decided to replace it with new buildings. That plan was subsequently disrupted when it looked like part of the property along West 34th Street would be affected by a proposal by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey to build a new train tunnel beneath it. After the Port abandoned that idea early last year, the site's owner decided to proceed with its plan for a hotel.