Moxy NYC Times Square, New York City

The Moxy NYC Times Square, originally Mills Hotel, is located at 485 Seventh Avenue, northeast corner of West 36th Street, New York City. The hotel opened in 2017, with 612 rooms, housed in a 16-story landmark building erected in 1906-1907. It is operated by Marriott International.

Construction of the Mills Hotel on 7th Avenue and 36th Street was announced in the late 1905 and opened in October 22, 1907. This neo-Renaissance style residential hotel building was developed by the banker Darius Ogden Mills (1825-1910) and designed by Copeland & Dole, originally with 1,875 bedrooms. The building is mainly comprised of two wings each with a central light court, linked by a center tower fronted by a two-story vestibule. The building originally had a 2 ½-story base with a high basement. In the 1950s the first story was lowered to ground level, a second story was created, and the main entrance was shifted to 485 Seventh Avenue.

This Mills Hotel was the third and largest of a series of three hotels constructed by D.O. Mills in Manhattan for poor men. The price per rooms was only 30 or 40 cents per day. The majority of guests were salesmen, and hotel and service industry employees but the hotel’s location near the theater district made it particularly popular with actors and entertainers. The Mills family retained ownership of this hotel until 1954. The building remained a low cost hotel until the early 1980s, although stores and a parking lot were installed in its lower stories. In the 1980s was remodeled for use as offices and it became the Fashion Avenue Atrium with skylights, waterfalls and trees filling the lobby. Aside from the alterations to its lower stories, its façades remain largely intact.

In 2017, Lightstone, a real estate company, was the owner of the building when it became the Moxy Times Square a brand of the Marriott International. The historic hotel building was renovated, with interior design by Yabu Pushelberg. The interior design firm Rockwell Group designed the seafood restaurant Legasea, an egg-centric sandwich shop, Egghead, and a rooftop bar, Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge. The hotel also includes fitness center, meeting space and beauty shop. It is steps from Penn Station, Times Square, Herald Square, Port Authority, Bryant Park, Madison Square Garden and Empire State Building.