The Row NYC Hotel near Times Square may soon be getting a new nickname: The Skid Row Hotel.
That’s because the city has confirmed that it has reserved 57 rooms — or 4 percent of the 1,331 rooms at the former Milford Plaza at 700 Eighth Ave. — for homeless families in its Turning the Tide on Homelessness housing program.
The city is currently using 49 of the rooms at the former Milford (which long had been known for its “Lullaby of Broadway” TV spots aimed at weekend theatergoers) in its fast-growing housing program, and expects that number to rise.
The count could go up on an “emergency basis,” although the city has no plans and has not discussed any intent to increase the number of rooms or use the entire hotel, a Department of Homeless Services spokesman insisted.
The program has used the Row since September, and both the community board and local elected officials were notified — but not the public and certainly not those staying at the hotel.
The city says it will phase out — across all five boroughs — the practice of using commercial rooms for homeless people as part of Turning the Tide. But that complete phaseout of commercial hotels is not expected until 2023.
At $220 a pop guaranteed by the city, housing some homeless people is almost better than trying to compete and having its $184 rooms knocked to $125 per night through discount sites like Travelocity. Still, a hotel spokeswoman who was unaware of, and did not discuss, the rooms for homeless people, says the hotel is full every night.
“As the Mayor has said, homeless New Yorkers come from every community in New York City — and as we phase out less effective, haphazard measures like cluster units and commercial hotels once and for all, we are committed to ensuring that, over time, our neighbors experiencing homelessness have access to high-quality facilities across the five boroughs that will give them the opportunity to be sheltered closer to the communities they last called home and the anchors of life, including school, family, health care and support networks as they get back on their feet,” DHS spokesman Isaac McGinn said.
The city might quietly salivate over using all the rooms, but the powerful hotel union would likely put the kibosh on the idea of losing a spot with about 350 employees.
The hotel’s current owners, the Rockpoint Group and Highgate Holdings, bought the 1928 building for $230 million in 2010 from the Milstein family and spent $140 million on renovations.
In 2010, the city had a total of just 86,600 hotel rooms. It now boasts 113,700 hotel rooms with another 25,500 in the pipeline. This year alone, 21 hotels opened, says NYC & Co., the city’s tourist bureau.
As for the Milford, to get back their investment, the owners sold the land under the hotel in 2013 to David Werner and Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management for $325 million, and leased it back to operate until Feb. 29, 2112, city records show. They also have a purchase option.
The owners, the hotel union, the Community Board and NYC & Co. did not respond with further comments.
