Designer Tommy Hilfiger is famous for his preppy American clothes, and now he's hoping that formula can translate into a new luxury hotel in New York City. Hilfiger and a business partner have signed a contract to pay $170 million for the Clock Tower office building near Madison Square Park with plans to convert it into a luxury hotel that will appeal to a young and affluent crowd.

This is a personal project for Mr. Hilfiger, whose former fashion company is now part of Phillips-Van Heusen Corp. and isn't involved in the hotel project. This is one of many new hotels under construction in New York, where the lodging industry is seeing a recovery form the economic downturn with rebounding room rates and lower vacancies. Other big fashion names have also expanded into the hotel world, with Versace hotels in Australia and Dubai, and Armani hotels as well.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 29th, 2011 at 10:16 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.