New York Post By and
A chic hotel in the heart of Broadway has been quietly operating as a migrant shelter for over a year, The Post has learned, as the Big Apple continues to grapple with the ongoing crisis.
The 141-room Square Hotel at 226 West 50th Street between Eighth Avenue and Broadway is just across from Gershwin Theatre, where the musical “Wicked” is playing.
“To our valued guests: it is with great sadness that we announce the Square Hotel will be closed for the foreseeable future. We appreciate your patronage and hope to welcome you back someday soon,” the Square Hotel says on its Facebook page.
The hotel’s website says, “Please pardon our appearance as we slip into something new! We look forward to welcoming you in the future.”
The hotel site still boasts a Japanese restaurant and bar in its lobby and “Art Nouveau styled hotel rooms” with “sophisticated furniture, plush beds with down comforters and deluxe linens, flat-screen televisions with cable and C.O. Bigelow toiletries.”
But recent visits to the Square Hotel found a much different scene.
A National Guard soldier is seen stationed at the entrance of the lobby.
A couple with carry on luggage walked into the hotel on Sunday, but were escorted out by National Guardsmen.
A sign placed at the lobby entrance last week warned that motor bikes chained to scaffolding and poles in front of the hotel would be cut and removed.
One critic said “lazy” hotel operators even in the Great White Way have concluded that it’s more profitable to take the easy money from the city to fully occupy their rooms with migrants rather than book tourists.
“These hotels could be doing a fine tourist business right now, but they are being lazy, and a sure-thing 100-percent occupancy on the city dime, and without having to provide traditional hotel services, is just too good a deal to pass up,” said Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
Other pro-business advocates said it’s sad that the city and the hotel industry are turning the Broadway District into a migrant district.
“We consider the Broadway District a key to the city’s economy. There is only one Broadway —in the entire world!” said state Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar…
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… (nypost.com)
Home | Caravan to Midnight (zutalk.com)
Be First to Comment