Grandeur Graces Downtown Brooklyn

July 8, 1998
Excerpted from Newsday

Borough's first new hotel in 68 years opens.

Marble floors. Oil paintings. Fancy Rugs.

These were some of the many things that impressed Catherine Jones,55, when she walked through the New York Marriott Brooklyn, the borough's first newly constructed hotel in 68 years, which opened in downtown Brooklyn yesterday...

The allure of the 376-room hotel with its 18,000-square-foot ballroom, swiming pool and health spa was s o strong that groups of people walked in from the streets to get a free tour, easily outnumbering the 75 paying guests who had checked in by yesterday afternoon.

Business and cultural leaders say the hotel, just a short distance from the Brooklyn Bridge, is the cherry on top of what has been a remarkable comeback for Brooklyn's downtown area, which had deteriorated for years but in the past decade has reinvented itself and is now home to cafes, museums, a major commercial office district and a vibrant retail strip.

"The hotel creates a center, a place for people to stay when they're in Brooklyn," said Nanette Rainone, president of the Brooklyn Information and Culture office. "It's going to put visitors at the doorsteps of all kinds of attractions in Brooklyn."

Mitchell Heymann, director of sales and marketing for the Marriott Brooklyn, said that as part of the effort to draw tourists to the area, the hotel has arranged for bus tour companies to make stops in downtown Brooklyn. He said the hotel has also arranged alliances with nearby cultural institutions to house entertainers that they book.

The hotel, which has created 275 new jobs, did not come cheap. To defray part of the cost to build the 31-story building that includes office space above the hotel, the city is paying as much as $52 million to construct the building and the adjacent 1,100-space parking garage and to improve nearby streets.

"This is an investment in the city," said Deputy Mayor Randy Levine. "The hotel, the garage and the office spaces in the building are going to create jobs."

The Marriott, where rooms will cost from $135 to $350 per night, was designed with a Brooklyn flavor. Paintings and murals of Brooklyn institutions such as Coney Island and the Grand Army Plaza adorn the walls. Conference rooms have been named after Brooklyn greats such as baseball player Jackie Robinson, poet Walt Whitman and composers Geotrge and Ira Gershwin.

Adams, of the Brooklyn Chamber, said he likes the 18,000-square-foot ballroom the most. "Think of all the charity events and business functions that can be held there," he said. "This weekend there's gong to be a convention at the hotel that's attracting 1,000 people. When those guests pour onto the streets, they're going to go shopping and to restaurants to eat."