City, Union Seek Hotel Limit in Grand Central Area

LAURA KUSISTO

A proposal to allow taller towers near Grand Central Terminal includes a concession to the hotel-workers union that helped derail a similar proposal under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and could signal the group's power under the new administration at City Hall.

No hotels in a proposed rezoning area—five blocks of Vanderbilt Avenue from East 42nd Street to East 47th Street—could be built without a special permit from the City Planning Commission and the City Council, according to a public document outlining the proposal.

Such a requirement would trigger a lengthy approval process with public scrutiny, potentially limiting the construction of hotels in the area. It would also allow the Hotel Trades Council to push public officials to support projects that have agreements in place about the right to organize workers.

Both the union and the city have an interest in making hotel development in the area difficult. The administration is trying to promote office development to make New York competitive with cities such as London and Shanghai, and it doesn't want those sites targeted primarily by hotel developers. The union is concerned that rapid hotel development shrinks room prices and profit margins, driving down the wages of its members.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-union-seek-hotel-limit-in-grand-central-area-1403052461