Where to even begin… Ok, I’m just going to say it. ANOTHER hotel will likely be constructed in East Williamsburg–less than a mile away from the future five story hotel on 27 Stewart Street as we reported yesterday.
This one will grow on 71 White Street according to the building permits filed with The Department of Buildings this Thursday, as reported by The Real Deal — and yes, that’s the former Vice Versa building where you bought that faux fur vintage coat two winters ago. (Now we understand why the owners, L Train Vintage, moved the store to Dekalb Ave back in October 2014–because they sold the building to become a hotel in November 2014!)
Six stories will be built on top of the existing floor, the hotel will be constructed near McKibbin Lofts, (in)famous for their naked painting parties, bedbugs and awesome views from their roof, and with just a short walk from Bushwick’s Champs-Élysées aka Bogart Street off the Morgan L. I would also like to point out the very romantic nearby cement factory, which however, at the pace of growth in East Williamsburg will likely become something like a holistic mall for tiny pets in the upcoming months.
The seven story hotel White (as I’m calling it for now, because it’s pretty close to “Hotel Wythe” in Williamsburg) will span across nearly 80,000 square feet; will have 112 rooms; a bar and a gym on the seventh floor; planned are also a restaurant and an open plaza.
It was Yoel Goldman’s All Year Management who proposed the building of the hotel, according to The Real Deal.
Guys, what do you think about all these hotels coming to our area? First Hotel Beaver; then Hotel Stewart, and now Hotel White… Can you imagine Bushwick as a tourist center? What kind of changes will these hotels bring? The positive changes will likely include new job opportunities. The negative changes will increase the property values and by extension our rents. Also influx of new people/tourists in the neighborhood will be interesting to say at the very least.
As one of our Facebook commenters, Brandon Zwagerman who runs Ridgewood Beat Twitter points out, the influx of hotels to East Williamsburg Industrial Zone, which is zoned M and allows for construction of hotels but not for residential buildings, could be classified as so called “commercial gentrification. “Along with bars, nightclubs, office space [it is] seen as an obvious way to get more $ from an industrially zoned property in a way that doesn’t require rezoning. […] We can expect more of same in local industrial zones, including around Halsey L on Ridgewood/Bushwick border, I predict…”