The Warren Street Hotel

NEW YORK CITY
NEW BUILD, COMPLETED 2024

The Warren Street Hotel is a strikingly bold new hotel, and the third New York project for both Firmdale Hotels and their cost consultants Greenway Associates. Situated in the vibrant and creative Tribeca neighbourhood, just a few blocks from the World Trade Centre, Warren Street Hotel is a celebration of contemporary art and design.

OUR ROLE

Greenway Associates were the appointed Cost Consultants throughout the construction of The Warren Street Hotel with Mark Greenway leading our team. The new hotel is Firmdale’s third hotel in New York, alongside The Crosby Hotel and The Whitby Hotel. Greenway Associates have worked on 9 Firmdale Hotels in London and 3 in New York over the last 25 years.

PROJECT SITE

Once a disused car park, Firmdale brought in a strong vision, starting from the ground up, as a celebration of contemporary art and design. The hotel features 69 bedrooms and 12 residential spaces over 11 storeys, alongside a restaurant, drawing room, bar and private events space with Firmdale’s famous interiors by Kit Kemp.

The project is situated in the bustling neighborhood of Tribeca, in the lower Manhatten area of New York. The picturesque cobble stoned streets, modernized industrial buildings, boutique stores and iconic red-brick buildings are in close proximity to the Hudson River and incredible skyscraper views. A significant feature of the hotel, is that it boasts an unobstructed view of part of the World Trade Center, which stands at an impressive 94 storeys.

PROJECT CHALLENGES

There were many unexpected challenges on this project!

COVID
The Covid Pandemic struck just as ground works commenced. This had a major impact on both the project and on Firmdale Hotels as a hotel operator. Whilst Firmdale’s other hotels had to close, the decision was made to continue with the development of the Warren Street Hotel, albeit after a six month pause.

MARKET ESCALATION
Rigorous management of cash flow became critical as a result of the pandemic and so the construction market in New York experienced a period of rapid cost escalation. This significantly affected the procurement of key trades like curtain walling, mechanical, plumbing and electrical services. Costs and lead times of materials, many of which came from Europe, became critical.

UNIONISATION OF HOTEL TRADES
Bill de Blasio, the New York Mayor, fulfilled his election promise to unionize all trades working in new hotel developments. The critical date for this change was 31 August 2021. Our project needed to achieve the completion of its structural frame to ground floor level in order to be exempt from this legislation, and this date was achieved.

UNFAVOURABLE GROUND CONDITIONS & ADJACENT PROPERTIES
The project site had seven neighbors, five access agreements and one adjacent protected building to manage. In addition to this, the ground conditions under both our site and that of our neighbors were very poor indeed. This necessitated constant neighbor liaison, preemptive bracing of neighboring masonry and strict monitoring of any building movement for the duration of the project.

PROJECT ACHIEVEMENTS

Despite numerous challenges, The Warren Street Hotel turned out to be a truly a great building and a fantastic project to be part of.

Paul Taylor of Stonehill Taylor was the appointed architect for all 3 Firmdale hotels in New York. Stonehill Taylor, founded in 1986, is a leader in hospitality design with a long list of both domestic and international hotel clients. They have once again designed a quality hotel with the façade that stuns both during the day and at night and rooms that offer tons of natural light. The designs were well supported by trades, such as Custom Metal Installations who made up the windows, cladding, rain-screen and decorative balustrades, Bauerschmidt who was responsible for the mill-work in public areas, guestrooms and suites, and Wilkstone who did the beautiful interior stonework for guestroom bathrooms and public amenities.

Interior Designer Kit Kemp has designed each of the 69 bedrooms, suites and residences in their own individual style, together with beautiful furnishings and luxurious bathrooms. Some even feature landscaped private terraced gardens and spectacular skyscraper views of lower Manhattan and the Hudson River.

All in all, this project really created a remarkable team. The Owner, Architect, consultants and Construction Manager are looking forward to the next project! The hotel is now taking bookings here.