The opening of Brooklyn Heights’ newly restored Bossert Hotel has been pushed back yet again and won’t accept guests until sometime next year, despite promises that the high-end Montague Street inn will welcome guests this month, Brooklyn Paper has learned.
One local leader learned of the delay when he tried to book an event for his civic group this month, only to be the elevators were out of commission until at least December.
“They didn’t give us a firm date when it would be opening,” said Peter Bray, who is the executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association.
And a construction worker at the site on the corner of Hicks and Montague streets claimed the hotel will not be ready to open to until next year.
It is the latest delay of the opening of the historic lodge that for years housed members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses before being sold in 2012.
Developer David Bistricer of Clipper Equity told this paper in June that the 107-year-old hotel would open in October, three years after he and fellow real estate tycoon Joseph Chetrit initially promised to have the ornate inn up and running.
But the floors still need to be refinished and the elevators must be fixed before the hotel can open its 280 rooms, ground-floor restaurant, cafe, and rooftop eatery and bar, according to the worker.
People have been itching to book a night at the swanky hotel, known as Brooklyn’s “Waldorf Astoria,” since this paper started writing about it, frequently contacting reporters asking about how they can make reservations at the same place where the Brooklyn Dodgers infamously celebrated their 1955 World Series win.
Argentinian hotelier Fen Hotels — the same operator that opened the Dazzler Hotel at Tillary Street and Flatbush Avenue Extension Downtown — will run the hotel under the name Esplendor Bossert, and has yet to set up a website for bookings.
And from his daily observations, Bray said that unfortunately, it doesn’t look like anybody will be staying the night in one of the hotel’s plush beds anytime soon.
“I walk by it everyday and on the ground floor when you look in the door you see that there’s quite a ways to go,” he said. “Its very bizarre, its already taken far longer than one would expect on any normal project of this sort.”
Clipper Equity did not respond to requests for comment.
