The Return of Sunset Beach

It's April 3. All of you must have your Hamptons houses booked for the summer already, right? Of course you do. Wait, what's that? You don't have your Hamptons house booked? Not even a quarter or half share? OMG. What r u going 2 do?

Don't panic. Don't cry. DBTH and AB Hotels have your solution. Sunset Beach is poised to open for the 2008 season. It's like Paradise Hotel 2, but on the beach in Shelter Island. Book all of your weekends now!

André Balazs' Not Doing 14th Street

Contrary to popular opinion, the three apartment buildings at 320-324 West 14th Street are not being converted into an André Balazs owned hotel. How do we know? Well, because we do. (What's up dude? What's up?) Anyway, a Little Birdy confirmed this, saying "The rumors about the Balazs hotel are completely false. The Icon Development Group said there is no deal for any hotel. They plan to convert them to condos." There you have it. The apartments stay.

· Is This the Site of André Balazs' Next Hotel? [Curbed]

Standard NYC Goes 2.0

The Standard NYC has been a long time coming. But has the lag time caused Andre and the Gang to lose their way? A Little Birdy found a listing on the oh so secretive aSmallWorld network from the Standard folks that reads:

We are opening a fantastic new project in NYC, The Standard New York will be anything but Standard. The question would be, what is it people/guests like to see at the hotel, what should be there and what should not be there. This is a question for the local NY'ers whom like to go out in the area and for future & existing guests.

Our LB notes, "Reeks of desperation: posting on aSmallWorld - surely, surely they must know what the hotel should & shouldn't be doing, without having to ask a load of trashy Euros, & i-bankers..." Yeah, we agree. Msr. Balazs is a successful hotelier many times over, and with his Meatpacking baby so close to the finish line, an effort like this is a little disconcerting.

We've got an idea for what should be there. An accessible hotel with courteous staff, comfortable beds, decent rates, and a few lounges open to anyone who may want to come by. It is a hotel, which nowadays seems easy to open, and difficult to get right.

Central Standard Time

The Standard in New York City still isn't ready, but Andre Balazs’ hasn't put the rest of his expansion plans on hold. The next location? Central America baby. To be more exact, Costa Rica. Sir Andre will probably look to apply some of the spa-rific lessons he learned with the Standard Miami in this new venture, even though Costa Rica is so over. Very lovely, but over. You would expect the first international Standard to be somewhere a bit more exotic, but this is the safe play. Or the Standard play, as it were.