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Many U.S. hotels that will be in the path of a total solar eclipse on April 8 are expecting to be at full occupancy. Preparations have been underway for weeks for that surge in demand from guests traveling to get the best view of the natural phenomenon, which will not happen again in the U.S. until 2044, HNN's Dana Miller reports.

There's more to it than making sure there are enough eclipse-viewing glasses for guests and staff. Hoteliers have strategized over how to set rates around the eclipse and add value to guests' stays with on-site programming.

"We started to level set, talk about what it's going to be like. We used [data from the 2017 eclipse] as a reference guide. We didn't know how we're going to perform. Is it a Super Bowl? Is it a concert? Is it a convention? What is it? We didn't understand the demographic," said Gilbert Arredondo, senior vice president of revenue strategy for Remington Hospitality. The firm has 20 hotels in the direct path of the eclipse.

Plans for a new casino resort in New York City's Hudson Yards, on the far west side of Manhattan, have been unveiled by Related Cos. and Wynn Resorts, CoStar News' Andria Cheng reports.

The progress comes as competition for a shot at New York’s high-stakes gaming licenses heats up.

The plans for Hudson Yards West include a 5.6-acre park, similar in size to Manhattan's popular Bryant Park, and a luxury hotel and gaming tower with restaurants and bars.

Iowa women's basketball "phenom" Caitlin Clark was a major attraction during the Big Ten NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament, which drew an estimated 200,000 people to Minneapolis last week, Minnesota news site Bring Me the News reports. The economic boom from tournament attendees was especially evident for hotels in the market, the site reports, citing data from CoStar's hospitality analytics division STR.

"Attendees of large events in the city bring a significant boost to Minneapolis’ economy by visiting local businesses, restaurants, bars, breweries and attractions, and staying at Minneapolis hotels, thereby generating lodging, entertainment, restaurant, liquor and sales taxes for the city and supporting the tens of thousands of tourism and hospitality workers in Minneapolis," Kevin Kurtt, spokesman for local tourism group Meet Minneapolis, said.

CoStar's Isaac Collazo, Chris Klauda and William Anns report that Minneapolis led the U.S. hotel industry in revenue per available room for the week, with that metric up 45% compared to the same week last year.

California-based hotel operator and developer T2 Hospitality has secured $102.9 million in bridge financing to recapitalize two Silicon Valley hotels, which are expected to benefit from recovering business travel, the Commercial Observer reports.

The two dual-branded Marriott hotels — the 350‐room AC Hotel Sunnyvale Moffett Park and the Tetra Hotel, Autograph Collection in Sunnyvale, California — are in the vicinity of business parks with office properties leased to Google, SpaceX, Walmart and Meta. The hotels are also 4 miles from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, home of the National Football League’s San Francisco 49ers.

Peachtree Group, formerly Stonehill, provided the loan, which will retire previous construction debt.

St. Louis-based Midas Hospitality has bought out of bankruptcy a downtown Brooklyn hotel that ran out of funding in the final stages of development, Crain's New York Business reports.

"The firm's portfolio includes several hotels throughout the Midwest and South, along with one in upstate New York, but this appears to be its first purchase in the city," the news outlet reports.

The 21-story, roughly 46,000-square-foot hotel and luxury residential project at 291 Livingston St. was already 95% done and would require about $6 million to complete, according to court documents. Its estimated value was $29.5 million, according to court filings. Midas paid $34.9 million.

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