
Ex-Bowery flophouse gets a stylish redo that features cozy sleeping space and shared baths for frugal tourists
NY Post
Skid Row has checked out.
Down-and-dirty punk music staple CBGB is now designer John Varvatos’ retail space.
Dark and dank Mars Bar has been replaced by a TD Bank.
And after years of extensive renovation, the scaffolding has finally come down at 338 Bowery, where the last flophouse on the once-notorious strip — the former Whitehouse — has been transformed into the Now Now hotel, NYC’s first truly chic sleeper-cabin lodgings.
President Theodore Roosevelt once wrote an essay comparing the Bowery to hell. But the oldest and previously seediest street in Manhattan has over time become more like a paradise for real estate developers.
Now comes yet another grimy downtown institution, washed clean of graffiti and refurbished to exorcise the counterculture — making room for tourists in search of a more elevated experience of the area.