MIDTOWN — Parking garages are making way for a pair of new international chain hotels in Times Square — and both part of a growing number of hotels in the Great White Way.
citizenM, a quirky, "affordable luxury" destination "for mobile travelers" that features customizable LED lighting and and cylindrical, Jetsons-style shower stalls is expected to open in October on West 50th Street, the chain's website says. The building will feature 230 rooms across 21 floors and marks citizenM's first foray into the United States.
The hotel chain, which did not return calls and emails for comment, opened hotels in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and it plans to open a second New York outpost in the Bowery some time next year.
Nine blocks south, a 30-story, 300-room Hampton Inn is also starting to rise above the Great White Way, Department of Buildings documents show.
The chain, part of Hilton, also did not respond to requests for comment. Signs posted at the construction site state that the hotel is expected to open in December 2014.
Both projects "are part of a wider trend of more and more hotels coming to Times Square," Gia Storms, director of communications for the Times Square Alliance, said in interviews with DNAinfo.com New York. "They see Times Square as the place to go."
Times Square hotels achieved an 88.4 percent occupancy rate in 2012 — the highest level on record since 1995, Storms said, and 3 percent higher than the average for Manhattan hotels overall.
"While that might not seem like a big difference, this works out to an extra $40 million in revenue for Times Square hotels in 2012," she said. "This reinforces how important the travel and tourism industry is as a whole."
