What’s Next? Once-Posh Watson Hotel Is Laying off 79 Workers As Migrant Center Days End
At one time a well-regarded stop for business travelers in Midtown, the Watson was already being decommissioned as a migrant shelter. The hotel now plans to sack more than half its workers this month, and its future is unclear.
Previously known for its proximity to Central Park and an iconic rooftop swimming pool, the Watson Hotel on West 57th Street said it is laying off more than half its workforce by the end of the month now that its latest incarnation as a migrant family shelter is ending.
It was one of many city hotels that were forced to close during COVID but then was given a lifeline as an emergency migrant center as more than 220,000 asylum seeker flooded into the city. It was used first as to house single men, then it was converted into a family shelter. Now that that is coming to an end, the hotel’s future is unclear.
In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN notice) filed with the NYS Labor Department, the Watson Hotel said that it will be laying off 79 of its current 134 employees, effective March 31. The reason for the reduction has been listed as “Contract Termination.”
Calls to the Watson were not returned by presstime. It’s not clear if the owners ultimately plan to refurbish and reopen as a hotel, such as it was in the Watson’s glory days, or sell to a new owner and developer, who could potentially tear it down.
The Watson hotel was originally bought by the family-owned real estate company Caspi Development in 1993, and after a few years of renovation, opened to the public in 1996 as a Holiday Inn. In 2015, the hotel went independent and was rebranded as the Watson.
Among many hotels to suffer during the pandemic due to a decline in tourism, the Watson temporarily closed. It reopened in 2022 to serve as a migrant shelter, specifically for single adult men.
“As the demands of this crisis evolve, we will continue to welcome asylum seekers,” said Mayor Eric Adams in a 2022 press release. “This fourth Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center at the Watson Hotel will help achieve that mission, connecting adult men to meals, medical care, mental health support, language access, technology, and resettlement.”
Starting in 2023, the shelter switched from housing adult men to accommodate the influx of migrant families.
And now, coinciding with the new administration’s immigration agenda, Adams announced on Feb. 24 that the Watson will be shutting its doors as a migrant shelter, and is part of a larger initiative to close 53 NYC Emergency Migrant Shelters by June.
The Pakistani Government-owned Roosevelt Hotel on East 45th Street is another hotel-turned-shelter that is ceasing operations by June after having housed more than 173,000 migrants since May of 2023. Crain’s New York Business reported that real estate broker JLL has been marketing the soon-to-be-emptied hotel as a potential “teardown” to make room for an office tower. A JPMorgan analyst told Crain’s that the property’s buyer may very well be SLGreen, as the REIT is currently searching for an available large-scale development site.
“We will continue to do everything we can to help migrants become self-sufficient, while finding more opportunities to save taxpayer money and turn the page on this unprecedented humanitarian crisis,” Adams said in his original Jan. 10 announcement regarding shelter closures.
Whether the Watson is on track for demolition or reinvention, the hotel is in the midst of another political transition.
It’s not clear if the owners ultimately plan to refurbish and reopen as a hotel, or sell to a new owner and developer, who could potentially tear it down.