By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
HELL'S KITCHEN — Tourists staying at four brand spanking new hotels in Hell’s Kitchen already share the block with more than 3,000 ex-convicts, and now a plan to increase that number by 50 percent has the hotels’ managers concerned about their bottom lines.
The ex-cons were there first — they report three days a week to the New York State Division of Parole office, an institution at 314 West 40th St. for four decades.
But as the formerly rundown neighborhood has transformed in the past two years into a tourist haven, with 1,000 hotel rooms at the Distrikt Hotel, Fairfield Inn & Suites, Staybridge Suites and Four Points by Sheraton, the coexistence of parolees and tourists has grown uneasy.
"A lot of [guests] say we love the hotel, we love the people, but we might not return," said Ron Bhandari, general manager of the Fairfield, located at 330 West 40th St.
The general managers worry that the experience of female guests in particular will deter repeat visits. In order to walk from the hotels to the subway stop at Eighth Avenue, guests must pass a caged, prison-like entryway to the Division of Parole, where ex-convicts line up on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.
"They're very appreciative of the female anatomy, and they're just making inappropriate comments," said Jennifer Rota, general manager of the Distrikt Hotel, noting that she herself often jaywalks across the block to avoid the parolees. "Knowing that there are also sexual offenders that are seeing where I'm walking, as a woman — you kind of put two and two together."
Tuesday morning, one of those parolees was a 28-year-old convicted of selling crack cocaine around the corner at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue. The man, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of receiving a parole violation that would jeopradize his ability to see his 3-year-old daughter, said he recognized that the location is problematic.
"I understand they have a business to run," he said of the hotels. "Some people, they may be scared coming into New York, seeing what looks like what people call 'a bunch of thugs.'"
The plan to schedule 1,600 more parolees for visits at the site won't bring any more parolees to the block on any given day, said New York State Division of Parole spokesperson Carole Weaver.
On the busiest days, a maximum of 317 parolees will continue to check in with their officers — but now, they'll also come on Thursdays and Fridays.
The benefit for the Division of Parole, which sources say will close its other Manhattan office at 119 West 31st St., is that the agency will likely save roughly 50 percent on rental costs, according to Weaver.
Although negotiations are ongoing, the transition is slated for completion in 2012, Weaver said.
However, the expansion will involve compromises on both side.
When rumors of the expansion first started to swirl in November, the general managers began working with Community Board 4's Health, Housing and Human Services committee.
The Division of Parole's regional manager has now agreed to implement several changes requested by the hotels, CB4 committee chair Joe Restuccia said at a meeting last week.
For one, they'll remove the caged entryway to the office, and instead build a larger interior waiting room. They'll also remove the current sign, which reads "New York State Division of Parole," and replace it with one that simply says "New York State."
Weaver declined to comment on those proposed design alterations, except to say that the Division of Parole provides input on renovations to the New York State Office of General Services, which oversees government buildings.
Already, the hotel managers have seen a few improvements. On a few days in the past week, the parolees have lined up on the North side street, next to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, rather than on the South side, where the hotels are located. Bhandari also noted that lately, he sees more uniformed police officers on the street from the NYPD's Midtown South Precinct.
"The Parole Board has been extremely receptive," said Rota. "As a bureaucratic agency, they could just say, 'hey, this is the way it is.'"
Nonetheless, the hotel managers remain concerned that the new parolee traffic on Thursdays and Fridays will make it even harder to attract guests away from other hotels just a few blocks away, who are already able to charge higher rates.
They particularly fret over the impact the parolee lines — as well as adult film store on the street — will have on online ratings at Trip Advisor, a website Rota says they "live and die by."
While the bulk of Trip Advisor reviews for all four hotels praise the proximity of the hotels to Times Square, a smattering on each listing offer adjectives for the block like "seedy," "very unsafe" and "dodgy."
One new review for Rota's Distrikt Hotel, posted on Sunday, calls the hotel very nice but the neighborhood a problem.
"Not dangerous, but just kind of sleazy," wrote user "Upintheairtoomuch," from Woodstock, Conn.
Rota concurs with that view, calling the problem not one of real physical danger, but one of perception. She believes that the Division of Parole should assign visible security staff to the line of parolees every morning.
The 28-year-old ex-convict said that sometimes it bothers him, seeing anxious-looking tourists scurry across the street. He said the Division of Parole and hotels should work together to find solutions, but that the parolees also have a responsibity to conduct themselves with dignity.
"It's the way you present yourself," he said. "I've paid my debt to society — I'm still paying my debt to society."
