No end in site for hospitality construction boom

Real Estate Weekly, Nov 19, 1997

Renovation, especially at the high-end, will continue to dominate development, the speakers agreed.

"This rose is lovely, but it has thorns," said panelist David Paul Helpern, FAIA, founder of Helpern Architects, a 25-year-old firm that has become increasingly active in hospitality planning and design. He discussed the advantages and drawbacks of three trends apparent in New York City today: renovation, collaboration and development in areas of the city where there were previously no hotel rooms.

Renovation

There are many good reason for the popular preference for renovation, not the least of which is that renovations quickly translate into income. Helpern pointed out that recycling facilities often avoids the delays associated with public agency reviews; often yields a better room count; and often releases the owner from many of the accessibility requirements imposed on new construction by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"Because existing hotel buildings may be over-built according to current zoning standards, in essence, the owner gets a bonus," Helpern said.

However, restoring a landmark or an historic property can be costly, and older buildings have older infrastructure - much or all of which may have to be replaced, Helpern warned. The same even applies to unlandmarked properties that aspire to that quality, such as The Penn Club of New York, for which Helpern Architects recreated a turn-of-the-century clubhouse with 1990s' amenities.

Collaboration

Helpern also discussed the growing trend toward collaborative design. "Twenty years ago, this meant that one firm did the design and a second delivered the working drawings," he recalled. "Today, in a time of themed buildings, owners can hire a currently popular designer but still turn the detail work - the design development, documentation, and coordination - over to a firm that has the depth and ability to get the project built."

However, collaboration can be costly to the Architect of Record if the design architect is unclear on intentions or slow to decide, so that the work is undone and redone. "This can be avoided if all-parties involved start with an attitude of cooperation," he counseled.

Exploration

New York's zoning has been fairly clear where hotels can be located, as well as the size of the structure and how spaces may be used. Lately, though, hotels have been located in areas outside of traditional commercial and entertainment districts. The renewal of neighborhoods is one reason, but the migration is not entirely without problems.

"More than evaluating whether the hotel can go into a particular district, you have to accurately predict whether you can get the owner's formula onto the property or prove that you can max out the number of rooms," said Helpern. "If you' re doing a conversion, older commercial buildings may prove more flexible than residential buildings of the same age because of their longer spans and greater load capability. Moreover, not all New Yorkers welcome the resurgence of the City's hospitality industry. There are multiple New York constituencies that can affect - although not stop - even as-of-right projects."

Helpern knows this from his experience with the SoHo Grand Hotel, which went through more reviews than any other project in the Buildings Department's history, according to one official.

Back to Basics

Helpern concluded by saying that while designing a hotel in New York often comes down to two things - impeccable information and top-flight management - the architect and owner alike need to keep one more thing in mind: the hotel guest.

"It's easy to fall in the trap of thinking only about your immediate client," Helpern warned. "But the ruler by which we measure success is whether or not a guest is happy enough to return to the hotel regularly."