Hotels on 39th St in Manhattan near the Port Authority Bus Terminal

Once in a while, I read something that truly blows my mind. Here’s one:

The Real Deal – One block, six hotels planned
At the low end is an 80-room budget Comfort Inn, at 305 West 39th Street, which will cost about $15 million to construct and offer rooms for about $150 a night. Across the pricing spectrum, there’s a four-star, $110 million, extended stay Homewood Suites (a Hilton brand), at 311 West 39th Street. The Homewood Suites will rent rooms for $275 a night and offer a 4,000-square-foot library and sitting area.

The other hotels on the block will likely be a Hampton Inn at 337 West 39th Street, a Candlewood Suites at 339 West 39th Street, and a Holiday Inn Express at 343 West 39th Street. Those three properties will be connected, and each will have 200 rooms, creating a total of 250,000 square feet.

I suspect, 99% of the readers of this blog won’t understand why this is so peculiar – after all, these look like pretty decent hotel rates for Manhattan.

But the fact is, I know 39th street pretty well – having grown up and worked in a factory in the Garment District. 39th street is… well… I’m not sure what the euphemism would be. Up and coming? Developing? Authentic? Gritty? Less Shady?

Here’s what it looks like on Live Search Maps:

(I think the hotels are going where the cars are parked between the buildings.)

These days, the neighborhood is a bit better. When I worked there in 1997, it was really bad. I’m never sure whether the low point was seeing a worker drop his pants on 8th street and “do his business” over the subway grates, or seeing a dead rat underneath a sidewalk sign advertising a lunch buffet. Or maybe it was the time I watched the employees at the now-defunct Burger King get into a fight because one cashier snatched a Whopper that another cashier was reaching for. Or maybe it was the Friday afternoon where a bunch of guys got drunk on the street and had a broken bottle/belt fight. Ah, the memories!

Still, in that neighborhood, you’ll still see scenes like this photo which was taken 1955. The fact that there will soon be hotel rooms for $275 on 39th street, simply amazes me.