Updates on the half-finished hotel at 237 Duffield

The Brooklyn Paper seems to be reprinting press releases without much fact checking. According to Duffield neighbors are hostile to the new hostel (published July 9),

The builders behind Duffield Street’s half-finished Hotel Indigo revealed renderings this week for another boutique hotel [at 231 Duffield].

The New York Post is a little worse- here is what they published on the same day:

Ground will be broken next week on a 19-story, 130-room boutique hotel on Duffield Street between Willoughby and Fulton streets, Long Island City-based V3 Hotels said yesterday.

Hotel Indigo, also built by V3.... is to be completed by the end of the year.

I contacted NY Post author Rich Calder to tell him that his story has some errors, but the paper did not change anything.

Here is a photo of this "half-finished" Hotel Indigo from May 7, 2009:



Here is the same location on July 19, 2009:



As you can see, the main difference is that the security guard is missing in the July photo.

The hotel at 231 Duffied Street was supposed to take place last week. Here are photos to show that the site remains undisturbed:

Is Hotel Indigo going to be completed this year?

The New York Post, it seems, published a developer's press release without bothering to fact checking. Here is what they wrote about V3 in MORE INN STORE FOR B'KLYN:

Ground will be broken next week on a 19-story, 130-room boutique hotel on Duffield Street between Willoughby and Fulton streets, Long Island City-based V3 Hotels said yesterday.

Three other hotels are already under construction on the same block, and together would bring another 645 rooms. That includes the hip 23-story Hotel Indigo, also built by V3, and new Sheraton and Aloft hotels.

The V3 hotel is expected to open in spring 2011, while the 165-room Hotel Indigo is to be completed by the end of the year.

A few other publications followed suit, including Brownstoner and The Real Deal. The part that is off-base is the completion date of Hotel Indigo, which is planned for 237 Duffield Street. Here are photos dated June 19, 2009. :





Apparently the scaffolding at 237 Duffield has come down in recent days, suggesting that the end-of-year completion date is pure fiction. When the hotel was first announced in 2007, it was slated to be completed at the end of 2008. Here is the Brownstoner post from August 2007.

News 12 Brooklyn video of 231 Duffield Demolition

News 12 Brooklyn broadcast the story of the demolition of the Abolitionist home at 231 Duffield Street. To see the story, click here. 

Demolition of 231 Duffield moves quickly

V3 has moved efficiently to demolish 231 Duffield Street. This is demolition is the work of a private developer, and it is NOT the same as 227 Duffield, the Abolitionist home owned by Joy Chatel, who succeeded in lifting the threat of eminent domain on her home.




For more photos of 231 Duffield (plus some nearby properties) on March 3, 2009, please click here. A 6-second video of the back of the building can be found here.

For a brief description of the history of 231 Duffield, click here to read yesterday's post. The demolition of this 1850 home was also covered today in Brownstoner here.