This is Sir Richard Branson’s first New York opening — a vast, 460 room, 39-floor glass behemoth with multiple roof terraces, bars, a pool and even a taverna, which will one day become an ivy festooned wedding venue (though admittedly when I see it ahead of the hotel’s grand opening the ivy is yet to grow in, so it’s all looking a little skeletal).
Branson broke ground on the project way back in 2015 and the development represents hundreds of millions in terms of investment. It’s one of the flagship openings which is meant to set the tone, in terms of scale and ambition, for the rapidly expanding Virgin Hotels empire. This year the company will also begin work on sites in Miami and Denver and has an eye on London too — it’s a far cry from 2020 when, as Branson recently told the BBC, thanks to the pandemic he “thought we were going to lose everything.”
