Is it good news or bad news? Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), the firm that will run Rahway’s new hotel (most of which actually will be condos — floors 5-15, 222 units) announced that profits plunged 60 percent in the third quarter. Not only was that expected, but operating profit was up 22 percent. If you’re not one of those zany finance types and you’re thinking, “Profits are down, yet up…huh?” Not to worry, it’s good news.
The Windsor, U.K.-based hotel group operates Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza as well as Hotel Indigo, which is the brand coming to Rahway. I think I’m more curious whether Rahway will be added to the list of exotic locales where you can find a Hotel Indigo (Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo…Buffalo?). It would be a good match with the Rahway Center Partnership‘s “Paris, Rome, Rahway” T-shirts.
The 102-room hotel is expected to open in the spring, but Director of Building, Engineering, Planning and Economic Development Lenore Slothower said during a Planning Board meeting last week that the building has a “list of snags” and hopes to “pick up the pace with some code requirements.”