Plans for the hotel. (Photo: Mary Reinholz)

Plans for the hotel. (Photo: Mary Reinholz)

A forthcoming Williamsburg hotel’s bid to pour liquor won the tentative support of a Community Board 1 committee last night, but not before co-chair Thomas J. Burrows blasted hoteliers for building in the hot neighborhood without any input from the community “until you want a liquor license.”

The eight-story hotel — still under construction on 63 North 10th Street, at Wythe Avenue — is seeking liquor licenses for about a half dozen bars. The SLA Review Committeevoted to tentatively support the application by 96 Wythe Acquistion LLC, a team headed by developer Toby Moskovits, CEO of a family-owned outfit called Heritage Equity Partners. But it also required the group to present its proposal at a public hearing scheduled for Monday evening. The State Liquor Authority will have the final say.

The 150-room hotel, expected to be completed sometime this year, is right around the corner from the sceney Wythe Hotel. Moskovits, who was present at last night’s hearing and tersely told us not to take pictures of her illustrated presentation, obtained a for the project in December from G4 Capital.

James Stuart, a member of her management team who lives in the neighborhood, said today he believed the CB 1 committee gave its blinking green light to the group’s app because the bars planned for the hotel were “small and intimate.” They include a bar in what looks to be an opulent ballroom, a cellar bar for which the developers will seek a cabaret license, and a 30-seat bar and lounge in a rooftop water tower. There will also be a restaurant with seats for 70.

Committee member Lisa Bamonte said the new hotel would loom large in the neighborhood and questioned how it would affect “the quality of life for people who have lived here for generations.”
But Jeff Mann, publisher of the Greenpoint Gazette and president of the Greenpoint Chamber of Commerce, backed the project, saying there was a need for temporary housing in the neighborhood and the hotel would provide that for traveling musicians “who bring in business” to the community.