Hotel add-on confirms marquee status

Marriott expansion boosts biz center

Crain's
March 14-20, 2005

By ANITA JAIN

THERE'S A LARGE HOTEL: The city's fourth-largest inn is adding six meeting rooms and 280 guest rooms.

Brooklyn's largest hotel, the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, will get even bigger with a $77 million, 24-story addition adjacent to the current property. The move indicates that the borough is not only capturing an increasing number of overflowing bookings from Manhattan but also growing in importance as a business center in its own right.

"The expansion proves how undersized the Brooklyn Marriott has been all these years," says Borough President Marty Markowitz. "The business community is growing downtown."

The new construction, slated to be completed in summer 2006, will add 280 guest room, bringing the total to 656. The existing seven-story hotel, on Adams Street, was built in 1998 by Muss Development Co. as part of its Renaissance Plaza project, which includes an office tower and a parking garage.

"Having extra rooms will allow us to book conventions and events we might not otherwise have had the flexibility to hold," says Jason Muss, one of the owners of Muss Development.

Mr. Muss notes that the Brooklyn Marriott is the city's fourth-largest hotel, and it has the biggest ballroom south of 42nd Street in Manhattan. The addition, being constructed on an 8,500-square-foot-site to the south of the existing building, will add 194,000 square feet to the 330,000-square-foot property, including six meeting rooms. A sky bridge will connect the two locations.

One giant step

Even without the expansion, the Marriott dwarfs other Brooklyn hotels, which have about 100 guest rooms tops. Sam Ibrahim, general manager of the Marriott, says, "Our major competition is from downtown Manhattan."

He notes that the expansion will allow his hotel to book as many as 400 guest rooms to a single company attending a meeting.

According to Mr. Ibrahim, occupancy for the Marriott hovers above 80%, and the hotel generates about $40 million in sales each year. He expects the expansion to add $20 million in sales in its first few years of operation and even higher levels after that. The addition is expected to produce 600 construction jobs and 100 permanent jobs.

Muss paid the city's Economic Development Corp. $5.2 million last fall to buy the land for the expansion.

Successful Site

"This is the best use for this city-owned land," says Andy Alper, EDC president. "Brooklyn has gone through enormous change in the past 10 years."

Muss will finance the expansion on its own. "The hotel has been so successful that it does not require investment from the city other than the land sale," Mr. Alper says.

Mr. Markowitz notes that since many of Brooklyn's 2.6 million inhabitants live in apartments, the expanding hotel may come in handy for visiting family members. He adds that it will also serve tourists using the cruise ship terminal slated to open in Red Hook this fall.

"Cruise passengers might come a day or two early to check out Brooklyn - and then make a day trip to Manhattan," says Mr. Markowitz.

333 Adams Street between Willoughby and Tillary Streets, Downtown Brooklyn (718-246-7000).