Not Loving Gowanus Holiday Inn's Cousin in the Bronx

What's good for Gowanus isn't good for the Bronx. The Norwood News reports that some Bronx residents are up in arms about plans by the same developers that built the Holiday Inn Express on Union Street in Gowanus to open a 42-room, five-story Comfort Inn on Webster Avenue in the Bronx.

While Brooklynites might dig the hotel boomlet taking place in South Brooklyn, Bronx residents say they don't need a hotel and/or motel. According to the Norwood News, they say the Comfort Inn:

will become a 'hot sheet' motel and a breeding ground for illegal and unsavory activity, including prostitution and drug abuse. Across the Bronx River in Wakefield there are already a dozen such motels, which offer hourly rates and no questions asked. Opponents are especially concerned about the location of the planned motel, which is a half block from a school, PS/MS 20, and will neighbor private residences.

Comfort Inn, meanwhile, says it has no intention of opening a "hot sheet" hotel and won't offer "short stay" or hourly room rentals. The hotel developer, McSam LLC, has 30 hotels in the works in the New York metro area. The firm built the Gowanus lodging that opened recently.

Community leaders say that while Brooklyn might be getting enough tourists for new hotels, the Bronx doesn't, and they're worried about what will happen if the developer and the hotel chain don't get enough guests and decide to sell the hotel.