By Linda Collins
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN — In addition to the new Best Western Manhattan Bridge hotel slated for 55 Flatbush Ave. Ext. in Downtown Brooklyn, the company has announced two additional hotels for other areas of the borough — Sunset Park and Bedford-Stuyvesant — with more to follow.

They join the two existing Brooklyn Best Westerns, the Gregory in Bay Ridge and the Brooklyn Bay in Sheepshead Bay.

Mark Williams, Best Western International’s vice president of North American development, said that despite the current recession, increasing competition for available rooms and limited available credit in New York, he has found “a hot bed of developers� interested in building hotels.

“Any new construction in urban areas is tough because of the cost of land but with the continued tax abatements and a condo market that has fizzled, hotels are still OK, are doable,� he said.

“When we looked at markets, especially in cities like New York, we see there’s always a need for hotel rooms. We always want to expand in New York. We could easily do 6 to 7 hotels more in Manhattan alone.�

Describing it as a mid-market chain Williams said the company just opened the four-star Best Western Bowery Hanbee, in Chinatown, and is currently developing three others in Queens and Staten Island in addition to the three in Brooklyn.

According to Williams, Best Western is not a publicly-traded company. It is a not-for-profit membership organization, where members own their own companies/hotels, as opposed to a franchise organization.

“We do not own or operate any hotels,� he said. “We operate to assist them [the members] with supplies and design, where needed. They have voting rights in our decisions, which franchisees do not,� he said.

• Best Western Downtown Brooklyn, 1324 Atlantic Ave. at Nostrand Avenue in Bed-Stuy, is expected to be the first completed, with its opening anticipated this summer. It will have 57 rooms in the brand new five-story 26,256-square-foot building plus cellar.

The main floor will contain the lobby and reception area as well as a large breakfast area, a meeting room of 445 square feet and an exercise room.

The reception, elevator and lobby areas “are well coordinated and have a unique architectural flair to them,� according to Williams, who notes this includes “generous amounts of polished granite on counters and floors.�

Williamsburg also said the exterior design is “a pleasing blend of materials — red brick, cast white stone, concrete block, stucco, glass and polished granite panel systems — that have been expertly coordinated into what will most assuredly be the center of attention for the entire block.�

Reached late Wednesdayowner Mukesh Patel, who is also owner of the boutique hotels Hotel Le Bleu on Fourth Avenue in Gowanus and the Hotel La Jolie in Williamsburg, said, “All the materials were of my own choosing. It will look fantastic once it is done.�

Patel, who estimates a July or August completion, is also proud that the rooms are of decent size. “In this neighborhood I didn’t think a boutique style would fly, but the hotel is being built almost like a boutique hotel,� he said.

He has had a lot of negative comments about the hotel’s location but he had that for the others, too. “But today, Fourth Avenue is changing,� he said. “Today, everyone is going to Williamsburg.� “This [Atlantic Avenue] location is not far from Downtown Brooklyn, it’s not far from the new stadium and Atlantic Yards development, and it’s easy to reach me: by public transportation — there is a Long Island Railroad station right in front of my property.�

As for room rates, Patel said he is taking into account the current economy and starting out low, planning to charge from $129 to $250.

Michael Kang is the architect.

• Best Western Sunset Park, 764 Fourth Ave. at 26th Street, Sunset Park, is expected to open in October.

It will have 99 rooms in the new 10-story 44,124-square-foot building, which will also include two meeting rooms of 366 and 280 square feet and a sub-cellar.

The sub-cellar will have a complete full-service fitness center complete with exercise and therapy areas plus steam rooms and saunas.

The owner, identified on Department of Buildings (DOB) documents as Joseph Yunatanov, could not be reached at press time.

• Best Western Manhattan Bridge at 55 Flatbush Ave. Extension, is still in the planning and design stage. As previously reported on Monday, it will have 80 rooms in 14 floors.

“This hotel will be quite different in terms of architecture,� said Williams. “The building will be the dominant feature in the area due to its architectural detail and its height.�

Floors 2 through 4 will have 10 rooms per floor, while floors 5 through 14 will have three rooms per floor. The rooms on the fifth floor will have spacious open terraces.

“Due to the building’s angled footprint (instead of rectangular), the layouts of all rooms and hallways is quite different than the norm (although the rooms remain rectangular for the most part),� said Williams. This hotel, which is still getting its approvals in order, is about “two years out,� according to Williams. A check of DOB records revealed there are no building permit applications filed as yet.

PropertyShark.com records show the owner as Flatbush Hospitality LLC, with Gerald Meyer named as principle.

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