Hotelier Says The Rockaways Are The New LES

The new Orchard Street. (Photo by Katie Sokoler/Gothamist)

Have you heard of this place Rockaway Beach? It's a magical oceanside fairyland that hipsters just uncovered and colonized with tacos and weird artist stuff. And while it spent some time as the next Williamsburg, it's already evolving into the next Lower East Side, if hotelier Sean MacPherson has anything to do with it.

MacPherson, part of "an elite group of nightlife creatives" who owns the Maritime Hotel, the Bowery Hotel and the Jane (he's also married to Guest of a Guest founder Rachelle Hruska), talked Rockaway to the Wall Street Journal, saying "It's the Lower East Side on the beach... It's like, 'Why are people not living out here?'" Golly, good question—if these LES types don't get in and build fancy hotels soon, this uninhabited peninsula might be lost forever! "I think it's going to be very slow-going, but in the long run it's a community that could exist all year long," he continued.

Will there be a red-velvet roped hotel opposite the SROs anytime soon? "There's real-estate development to be had there," he said. "I think maybe there could be a hotel there the way people do hotels in the Hamptons—kind of funky, like a motel. I'm shopping. I'm always looking." Everyone start saving up for those glamorous $14 Rockaway hotel lobby cocktails now.

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By Jamie Feldmar in Arts & Entertainment on August 12, 2011 12:38 PM

Comments [rss]

tommy ritz

have you ever been to b116th its a skid row people laying all over the block begging for money. disgusting

nycgirl

Stay out of Rockaway. We are full.

nomadnewyork

Bring back the bungalows!

TheRealCannibal

I heard Bayonne is the new LIC

teen_seagull

this guy talks like people don't already live there year-round. what a fucking asshole. i'm so angry i might steal one of those bikes outside the stupid jane hotel.

TheRealCannibal

I'm sure those bikes will get stolen anyway

randomtransplant

Rockaways is a great beach with surprisingly decent amount of surf, but for less money & the same commute time you could just move to long branch or ocean grove and save yourself the socio-economic stigma & glorification that comes with living within the city limits by 5 minutes.

Also a penisula in winter with shoddy housing standards for rentals sounds like a great way to be trapped in doors listing to your con-ed bill sucked out the cracks in your insulation for half the year.

glen_glenn

The new food stands are delicious, "hipster" or not. A welcome addition to the boardwalk.

Benjamin Steiner

What a compelling reason to go to the beach.

gtraindelay

"It's the Lower East Side on the beach... It's like, 'Why are people not living out here?'' -

Because we live in an area of planet earth that is subjected to seasons. In winter, beach areas get cold. People who want to buy $14 cocktails will not like traveling for an hour to be by a cold, empty beach.

*this also applies to the redevelopment of Coney Island.

brooklyndan

Really. In terms of travel time, Newark is closer. Hell, Summit, NJ is closer. So is Great Neck.

chuzzlewit

god i hope you're right.

Guest

Must every last nice neighborhood in NYC be converted into a fucking hipster/yuppie amusement park? Leave Rockaway alone. So sick of this shit. Has anyone seen L.E.S. lately? It's full of bridge and tunnels and tourists, even on weeknights. Nauseating.