Richard Branson had already announced the target market for his hotel chain: "major urban markets in the United States". So it's going to be hard to do without the city, New York, and its reservoir of business travellers. Now it's a done deal, or almost: the charismatic founder of the Virgin group recently unveiled a project that will result in a 300-room hotel, due to open in 2016. The address is already known: the corner of Broadway and 29.th street, in the New York district of NoMad. "Finally, the city that never sleeps will have a charming (...) Virgin hotel where you can play, eat, work, meet and, yes, even sleep," quipped Richard Branson in the columns of USA Today. It should be noted that the first Virgin Hotel is due to open in Chicago in 2014, while London could host the brand's first European address in a second phase.
