A number of years ago I spent a night at the W Hotel Times Square, located in New York City – ever since that night, I have had the utmost respect, fondness, and love of the W Hotel brand. Before I even stayed at that W, I always thought Starwood Hotels & Resorts was an unbelievable Hotel company – owning brands such as Sheraton, St. Regis, Le Meridien, Four Points, Westin, W, Luxury Collection and their two new brands – aloft and Element. It amazes me how Starwood always seems to be a step ahead of the competition in regards to style, locations and hipness.

Starwood Hotels was created by who I think is an unbelievable visionary – Barry Sternlicht, who built up Starwood from a combination of ITT-Sheraton, Westin Hotels & Resorts and a little known company known as Hotels Investors Trust (HOT). In a few short years, Barry took a number of disassociated hotel brands, a suffering hotel investment company and turned them into a great competitor to the big boys – Hilton & Marriott. While Starwood still has a LONG way to go before it is bigger than Marriott or Hilton (for example, there are more Hampton Inns than there are Sheratons, Four Points, W’s, Westins, Le Meridiens, St Regis and Luxury Collection COMBINED!), I think Starwood has made the rest of the lodging industry wake up and realize that they have to freshen up their brands and evolve in order to stay current.

I firmly believe the lodging industry has Barry Sternlicht to thank for that.. To be quite honest – it is a huge goal of mine to work for Mr. Sternlicht, at Starwood Capital (He is no longer affiliated with Starwood Hotels).

In any case the W Hotel brand is an excellent brand, in my opinion the first brand that is a boutique brand, replicated throughout the world, yet still able to keep its boutique status (I’m sure there are plenty of others who think differently – but W is a boutique hotel).. W Hotels have an almost 10 year run on Marriott & Ian Schrager.. Good luck catching up Bill.

The W Hoboken has been on the drawing board since I think 2005, and since I live about 45 minutes away, I would take trips up to the site to see how its construction process is proceeding – not until late last year was there actually any work being done.! Finally though, there is alot of progress happening on the site, and my friend Jim and I take an almost monthly visit to the site to see how its progressing.. Tonight we took our latest trip and the hotel is finally up to 24 stories.! Only a few more until its topped off, and I know the 2008 opening date is final (initial opening dates were Early 2007)

Here is a picture of how the W Hoboken is progressing as of today:

(Click for a full size picture)

About four or five months ago I heard a rumor that the Moinian Group was going to build a 6th W being built in Manhattan, at 123 Washington Street, one block away from Ground Zero in Downtown Manhattan. So now whenever I visit the W Hoboken – I continue through the Holland Tunnel and visit the site of the W New York Downtown. In the four or five months that I’ve been visiting that site – there has been a good deal of work getting accomplished.. This W seems to be on schedule to be opened by 2009, and it looks like its going to be great. I really don’t have any information on what special things this hotel will have, besides the normal W amenities – Living Room, Residences, on-site Restaurant – since their website & the Moinian Group’s site does not have much info up yet, but I’ll put more information here once I find out.

Here’s a picture of the W New York Downtown site today:

(Click for a larger picture)

I’ve also been updating pictures on Facebook of the visits I’ve taken to the W Hotel sites. You can view the photo gallery of both hotels by visiting these links (Facebook membership is NOT required to view these albums)

W Hoboken Hotel & Residences Gallery
W New York Downtown Gallery

andrew@alconic-inc.com

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