Sam Chang files for NYC's largest hotel in 35 years at 150 West 48th in Times Square

By Ondel Hylton | From Future New York Monday, December 30, 2019

McSam Hotel Group plans to build a 34-floor, 974-key hotel at 150 West 48th Street in Times Square (Google Earth)

Sam Chang's McSam Hotel Group, the city's most prolific builder of hotels, has submitted plans to erect a nearly 1,000-key hotel tower just off Times Square's famous 'Bow Tie.' Permits filed with the city's Department of Buildings show the new inn will rise a modest 34 stories tall but accommodate a whopping 974 rooms, making it the ninth-largest hotel building in the city if built, and the largest to come online since the nearby 1,949-room New York Marriott Marquis which opened in 1985.

Chang's site is located midblock at 150 West 48th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues and has already been cleared of pre-existing buildings. According to The Real Deal, Chang acquired the lot from the Rockefeller Group in October for $140 million and landed a $250 million loan earlier this month. Gene Kaufman is listed as the architect of record (no comment).

The site, assembled by the Rockefeller Group over the years, previously held a six-story garage and a collection of buildings known as "Music Row." Notable merchants on the stretch included Manny's Musical Instruments, an unofficial Midtown landmark that opened in 1935. According to a 2009 Lost New York City blog post reporting the institution's demise, "Over the years, Manny's serviced such clients as Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Buddy Holly, the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix, U2, Eric Clapton and Nirvana."

Cleared site of 150 West 48th Street where Sam Chang plans a gargantuan 974-room hotel | CityRealty December 2019

The project's floor schedule, which accompanied the permit filing, details typical hotel amenities such as a restaurant and a lounge/bar on the ground floor. The zoning lot amasses more than 300,000 square feet of buildable area, meaning hotel rooms will have an efficient layout similar to most of the mid- and low-end hotels steered by Chang in recent years. Levels three through eight will hold a staggering 174 rooms per floor. Above the twelfth floor, there will be roughly 30 rooms per floor.

Somewhat of an eyebrow-raiser, the hotel will have 322 bicycle parking spaces. A 2009 Bloomberg administration initiative requires every new multi-family residential, community facility, and commercial building built in the city to provide enclosed, secure bicycle parking. In the case of commercial hotels, one bicycle parking space per 10,000 square feet must be provided. Several years ago, a slightly elevated bike lane was installed along Seventh Avenue in Times Square. As perhaps the least crowded space in the square, it could be wise for hotel guests to opt for bikes instead of tour buses.

Chang's project will join a cluster of new hotel towers under construction just east Times Square. Across 48th Street from the site, Extell Development is building a 35-story, 445-key Hard Rock Hotel. Behind Chang's site, at 145 West 47th Street, Tribeach Holding's is building a 48-story, 660-key hotel tower. Most ambitious of all is TSX Broadway , at the corner of 47th Street, where a $2.5B redevelopment of the historic Palace Theatre will usher in a new 669-key hotel in addition to a podium packed with retail and entertainment uses.

Despite a record-breaking number of tourists projected to visit the city this year, PwC's Manhattan Lodging Index showed that for the third quarter of 2019, there were declines in occupancy and average daily room rate largely due to an increasing supply of new hotels.