Dive Brief:
- LuxUrban Hotels Inc. has signed separate 35-year Master Lease Agreements to operate two properties in New York City’s Times Square — Hotel 46 Times Square and The Hotel at Times Square — the company announced Monday.
- The 79-room Hotel 46 Times Square will open to guests in Q3 this year and the 213-room Hotel at Times Square will follow in Q4.
- Combined, the hotels add 292 units in the company’s largest market, New York City, as LuxUrban continues to expand at a rapid pace.
Dive Insight:
“With the addition of these two new properties, the number of units in our asset light portfolio of hotel rooms approximates 2,100 and properties under MLA has increased to 22,” said Brian Ferdinand, chairman and CEO of LuxUrban Hotels, in a statement.
LuxUrban’s business model centers on long-term leases of hotels, keeping its portfolio asset-light. The company is currently in the process of expanding its portfolio by seeking accommodations that were dislocated or underused as a result of the pandemic or economic conditions.
The expansion has been rapid. As of March this year, the company had 1,034 hotel rooms available for rent, and it expects to have 2,000 short-term rental hotel rooms under operation by the start of Q3, Ferdinand said in a previous release.
New York City is LuxUrban’s primary market, though it also manages hotels in Washington, D.C., Miami Beach, New Orleans and Los Angeles. Last Month, LuxUrban entered into similar MLAs with the Condor Hotel in Brooklyn and the Trinity Hotel in Los Angeles.
The city’s tourism is in a period of “growth and recovery,” Ferdinand said at the time of the Brooklyn addition. New York City is expected to welcome more than 60 million visitors in 2023.
Times Square alone attracts 50 million visitors annually, Ferdinand added in the release.
