With Event Farm's Digital Gifting Wall, guests can have offers emailed to them by tapping a badge. Gifts include coupon codes, music files, and digital content.
Through SugarWish, the sender picks a SugarWish gift and e-card, and the recipient picks four candies from options that include sugar-free gummy peaches and regular M&M’s. The boxes, from $16.50 to $95, are then immediately shipped out and can be sent throughout the United States and Canada. The company recently launched a corporate platform where companies can send customized e-cards with logos and personalized messages.
GCI is a digital gifting company that has a dedicated "Gift Card Shop." The site allows users to "wrap" gift cards, which are redeemable online, with personalized photos, videos, text, music, and sounds. Cards can be redeemed at retailers such as the Gap and Lowes; they can also be redeemed at spas.
Following a $180 million gut renovation that closed the hotel for more than a year, the InterContinental New York Barclay reopened in the spring in time for its 90th anniversary. The luxury Midtown property increased its room count to 704 and includes two specialty suites: the 3,000-square-foot Presidential Suite and the new rooftop Penthouse Sky Suite, a 3,000-square-foot space with a 1,500-square-foot terrace that overlooks the Chrysler building. Overall the hotel offers 15,000 square feet of meeting space and can now host larger events after creating two new ballrooms, the 5,000-square-foot Grand Ballroom and the 3,500-square-foot Empire Ballroom. Most of the event space is located on the second floor, accessed by elevator or a grand staircase. A new feature, the InterContinental Club Lounge on the lobby level, has two small meeting rooms, one that seats 20 guests and the other for 10. The property has thoughtful design touches such as built-in bars in the prefunction space, noise-reduction features in the event space, and a massive new kitchen dedicated to banquets with its own elevator dedicated to food and beverage service.
With a design that fuses technology and art in new ways, the Renaissance New York Midtown Hotel opened in the garment district in late March. Design studio Jeffrey Beers International and Roger Parent of technology firm Réalisations Inc. Montreal collaborated on several digital design elements, such as ambient intelligent corridors that respond to human movement, digitally enhanced elevator banks, and an interactive “Discovery Portal” with neighborhood guides with information from Time Out magazine. The 348-room hotel has 4,500 square feet of meeting and event space with floor-to-ceiling windows and design elements such as oversize quotes from fashion luminaries Coco Chanel and Oscar de la Renta painted onto a wall. The largest function area is the Salon ballroom, a 1,656-square-foot space that seats 170 theater-style or holds 150 for receptions. The sixth floor houses the Lobby Bar, Library Lounge, a DJ booth, and Club Lounge. Another gathering space is Rock and Reilly’s, a gastropub that encompasses an 8,000 square-foot outdoor terrace, with a retractable roof, private cabanas, and two bars. Atop the building is a four-story LED digital clock at the top of the building.
Offsite, which operates dedicated meeting and event spaces in New York and Chicago, debuted Offsite Loft in midtown in March. The new 3,000-square-foot venue encompasses two spaces: The Main Room, which features white exposed brick and oversize windows, can be set up in a variety of configurations for as many as 35 guests; and the Annex contains a cafe, lounge, and boardroom with sliding glass doors that double as whiteboards. The space comes fully furnished and includes a kitchenette stocked with snacks and beverages. Tech amenities include four 70-inch LED televisions, zoned audio, dedicated high-speed Wi-Fi, and microphones and wireless clickers.
The Chord Club by Billboard, a recording studio and event space with music-theme decor, opened on the Upper East Side in February. The 5,700-square-foot space includes two recording studios, and vocal coaches and sound engineers are available to assist guests at events. The venue also has a DJ room and a private event space that holds 75 people for receptions.
The hotel 11 Howard, from real estate mogul Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding, opened in SoHo April 1. Rosen imparts his passion for art at the 221-room property, which features numerous works including an Alexander Calder mobile and a 150- by 50-foot mural designed by young artists from Groundswell with mentorship from Jeff Koons. For events, there is a 14-person meeting space called the Creative Studio, a bar called the Blond, and a cozy library space. The hotel’s restaurant, the French concept Le Coucou, comes from restaurateur Stephen Starr and opened in mid-May.
The two-screen independent movie house Metrograph recently opened in the Lower East Side. Founder Alexander Olch also designed the space, which features seats milled from wood beams from Brooklyn’s former Domino Sugar Refinery and a Dolby Audio Server in Theater 1 from the recently closed Ziegfeld Theater. Theater 1 seats 175 people, including a balcony for 23 people, while Theater 2 seats 50. In May, the venue opened Commissary, a set of food and beverage spaces that include a downstairs lobby bar and an upstairs restaurant, bar, and 23-seat private dining room. The upstairs and downstairs spaces can each hold receptions of 250 guests.
Following a renovation and rebranding, Redbury New York opened in the former Martha Washington Hotel in NoMad in April. Dakota Development and Avenue Interiors, who helped create the look of Redbury hotels in Hollywood and South Beach, redesigned the property. For meetings, there is more than 7,000 square feet of function space including a 2,700-square-foot ballroom that seats about 170 for banquets, and a 1,100-square-foot outdoor terrace. One prominent part of the property has remained unchanged: the hotel’s popular restaurant, Marta pizzeria from Union Square Hospitality Group. The 256-room hotel is operated by SBE.
LDV Hospitality and chef and partner Marc Forgione have expanded their American Cut concept uptown. American Cut Midtown, which opened in the Lombardy hotel in March, is a chic take on a steak house. With design by Chris Sheffield of SLDesign, its rock ‘n’ roll vibe is evident immediately: The entry hall is lined with oversize black-and-white photos of icons such as Debbie Harry. The 6,000-square-foot dining room seats 130 people and includes a semiprivate space that seats 40 separated by a laser-cut chevron-patterned metal curtain. The bar and lounge seats 36, and behind it is a wine room that seats 20 or holds 30 for receptions. Menu standouts include chili lobster toast and the tomahawk ribeye steak, and bartenders mix made-to-order cocktails at a rolling bar cart.
Opening this summer, the Fish Bowl at Dream Midtown hotel will invite guests to play mini bowling, darts, billiards, and more. Designed by Josh Held Design, the bar and games lounge gets its name from its centerpiece feature: a two-story fish tank. The venue will hold about 120 for reception-style events.
Syndicated, an independent movie theater with a restaurant and bar, made its premiere in January in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood. Home Studios designed the interiors of the 1,200-square-foot former warehouse space, which now includes a 48-seat movie theater with a 280-inch screen and NEC digital projector, as well as a 70-seat restaurant, and a bar that seats 28. The seasonal restaurant offers dishes such as scrumpets with corned beef short rib, popcorn-crusted fried oysters, and duck confit nachos.
Correction: The venue's opening date has been updated.
Ian Schrager’s tech-forward Public Hotel, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, is slated to open in early June. Free Wi-Fi service is available throughout the entire 367-room property, which features more than 13,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space. Also on site are a Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant; a modular, multimedia venue that can serve a variety of functions; and an outdoor garden designed by Madison Cox.
