ROW NYC, the once-infamous Manhattan migrant hotel that was a shelter site for nearly three years, quietly reopened to tourists last week. <\/p>\n
Fresh flowers beautified the front and wheelie suitcases crowded the lobby on Friday as the 1,300-room Midtown property was back offering \u201cmodern\u201d rooms and \u201cinviting\u201d stays for a few hundred bucks a night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they said that they reopened today I was wondering what are the things they did to fix it because it looks good,\u201d said guest Efrain Santiago, 50. <\/p>\n
The 1,300\u2011room property on Eighth Avenue between West 44th and 45th streets is back to selling \u201cmodern\u201d rooms for a few hundred dollars a night and billing itself as an \u201cinviting\u201d Times Square base. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThe room is really clean and neat. I\u2019m on the 24th floor with a great view. The employees and manager have been great to us,\u201d added Santiago, who is visiting from Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n
The glossy reboot includes Percy All Day, a new 90\u2011seat bar and caf\u00e9 that stretches along the lobby, offering espresso and croissants in the morning and cocktails and small plates at night. <\/p>\n
A retail nook called \u201cnyce things\u201d sells logo caps, totes and other New York themed merch.<\/p>\n
But some visitors still found signs of wear and tear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a little concerned about the elevator because it looks like there were wires leaking out of the bottom,\u201d said Serena Villa, 28, visiting from Austin. \u201cThere was a gap and there are exposed wires coming out of it. I was like, that should not be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
A sleek lobby bar anchors the space, ringed by contemporary furniture and a mural by local artist Bryce Wymer. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
Villa, who found the hotel listed on Airbnb and paid about $300 per night, said that \u201cmost of it\u2019s pretty, the lobby looks really cozy,\u201d and that staff seemed especially attentive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey definitely told employees to mind their P\u2019s and Q\u2019s because everyone is being really nice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Other guests noticed that some areas of the hotel were still roped off and under construction.<\/p>\n
Lauren Holland, 31, and Alyssa Davis, 31, visiting from Kentucky, accidentally ended up on the hotel\u2019s second floor, which is not open yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just really dirty and pretty torn up,\u201d Holland said. \u201cThe walls were white and had polka dots on them, like stickers stuck on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n
A new seating arrangement is framed by glossy photographs of New York City. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
Guests walk around the ROW\u2019s lobby on May 1, 2026. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
Tony Machado, Senior Vice President and Head of Design at Highgate, said the damage to the hotel after serving as a shelter for years was typical of \u201cfamily living.\u201d<\/p>\n
Machado said construction is ongoing as the hotel takes a \u201cphased approach,\u201d reopening floor by floor with about 300 rooms finished so far. <\/p>\n
He said workers have installed new carpet, new wall finishes, new lighting, new paint, new artwork, new signage, new room numbers, new mattresses, new sheets, new furniture and put new sinks, faucets and mirrors in the bathrooms.<\/p>\n
Serena Villa, visiting from Austin noticed exposed wires in one of the hotel\u2019s elevators. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like in a lot of ways we\u2019re giving back to the city by reimagining this hotel,\u201d Machado said.<\/p>\n
For longtime neighborhood workers, the transformation is stark. <\/p>\n
William Brownstein, 63, who has spent the last decade selling tickets to a nearby comedy show, said he watched the hotel before, during and after its shelter years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was not pretty because I remember the old hotel,\u201d Brownstein said of the period when the hotel was a notorious migrant den.<\/p>\n
William Brownstein observed the ROW NYC hotel go from famed luxury hotel to migrant shelter. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
He recalled \u201ca lot of pot smoking\u201d and small unattended children lining the block.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was disgusting. Not them, but they hang out in the middle of the street, they had a million bikes there. Little kids at night, I\u2019m talking three-or four-years-old, sitting on the curb,\u201d he said. \u201cThis area has a lot of charm, but it was going down the tube.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brownstein came by on Friday during the reopening to see the changes for himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to see this restored to the way it was,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROW NYC, the once-infamous Manhattan migrant hotel that was a shelter site for nearly three years, quietly reopened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[57,3411,9,56,63,65,64,87120,87,2027,6315,13942,58],"class_list":["post-222392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-metro","tag-migrants","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-pedicabs","tag-politics","tag-times-square","tag-tourism","tag-tourists","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}