NEW YORK—For Virgin Hotels, having a property in New York City wasn’t a matter of if, but more a matter of when. And, following a recent groundbreaking on Broadway, the countdown is officially on.
The company is partnering with New York City-based developer The Lam Group on the hotel, which is slated to open in 2018 and will be part of a mixed-use facility with roughly 70,000 sq. ft. of retail space on the first two floors, as well as underground. The property will include some 463 rooms, or chambers as Virgin refers to them, including multiple concept suites.
Raul Leal, CEO of Virgin Hotels, talked about the importance of having a presence in Manhattan to add to the brand’s lone existing property in Chicago, which opened earlier this year. “For us, New York was always one of our primary target markets when we launched the brand. We had to be in New York; it’s one of the world’s greatest cities,” he said. The company has targeted other major U.S. markets for expansion such as Miami, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, DC.
Leal noted the company was deliberate about its approach to entering New York and touted the property’s trendy new location, which is between 29th and 30th Sts. in what is known as the NoMad neighborhood. “We wanted to make sure we landed the right opportunity in New York, so we passed up a few early on, but then we were always enamored with what was going on on that side of town,” he said, adding that the Ace Hotel New York “has done a great job of putting that area on the map.”
Leal elaborated on the specific appeal of the NoMad area. “The neighborhood was evolving a quite a bit. We liked the location for us because it had a bit of everything. It wasn’t necessarily Times Square, but it wasn’t the Meatpacking District either. So, we just thought, from a central perspective, our consumers would be very happy with that location,” he said.
But, Leal acknowledged that, in addition to working for Virgin’s consumers, the site needed to work for the brand as well. “The first [New York] location for us had to be something we were going to be happy with. We looked at quite a bit of different things in New York, and we wanted to make sure it was a location that was up and coming. We also wanted to make sure we could add some value to the neighborhood as well, which I think we will, and it just made a lot of sense,” he said.
Leal noted The Lam Group, which has a wealth of development experience in New York, came to the company with the idea for a Virgin Hotel following its purchase of the land. Virgin did its due diligence and decided to move forward with the project. “We thought they were going to make good development partners for us. They’re very well-respected by the brands that they are doing business with. They’ve done a lot of Starwood products and we, of course, know the Starwood people and they spoke very highly of them as a franchisee, so we thought it was a good mesh,” he said.
Leal acknowledged New York likely won’t be the next Virgin Hotel to open as there are deals signed for properties in Nashville, TN, and Dallas as well. He noted of the New York project, “It’s a massive building, so there’s a lot to be done.” He said he is hopeful that the property will open by midyear 2018, which “should be a good time.”
The hotel, which will begin on the third floor of the building, will include a rooftop pool and multiple dining outlets, including The Commons Club, as well as a rooftop bar. Leal noted that, in terms of guestrooms, the approach will be pretty standard. “We’re going to be fairly consistent at every hotel as far as the room product is concerned from what we’re offering in Chicago,” he said.
However, he stressed there will be plenty of distinct elements to each Virgin property, including the New York hotel. “The designs and schemes of the hotels will be different from city to city. We wanted to make sure that everywhere we go, the hotel designs are kind of grafted in the community; that it’s not going to feel like Chicago in New York. In New York, it’s going to feel like New York. So, the core tenets of the company and the philosophy of the organization are going to be in play there in terms of what we offer to consumers in the brand proposition, but it will feel different,” he said, further noting there are still a number of elements that will be replicated from the Chicago property because “it has been successful so far.”
Leal listed the competitive set for the property as the aforementioned Ace Hotel; The Standard, which was designed by André Balazs; and a new SLS Hotel, as well as a number of independents.
Virgin Hotels’ parent company, the Virgin Group, led by company founder Sir Richard Branson, hasn’t had a presence in New York since the Virgin Megastore left Times Square in 2009. To commemorate the groundbreaking and the history the company has in New York, Branson joined Leal to bury a Virgin time capsule—a chest of mementos from Virgin company moments in New York. Among the capsule’s contents are a Virgin Cola can; a Wham Glam Thank You Ma’am CD from the Megastore; Virgin Atlantic onboard salt & pepper shakers; Virgin Hotel key cards; Virgin America headphones; and a JFK Airport boarding pass. HB