Moxy Williamsburg Scores With Partnership With New York Liberty

30.09.2023 - 15:09 / forbes.com / Dolly Parton

In the spring of 2023, the New York City portfolio of Moxy Hotels expanded into another borough with the opening of Moxy Williamsburg, where it is courting more than guests. The Moxy brand property is the partner of the WNBA basketball team, New York Liberty, through an agreement that began this past June.

With the WNBA semifinals happening on October 1 and 3, the Moxy Williamsburg serves as the recommended hotel for all WNBA teams traveling to Brooklyn to play against Liberty at Barclays Center.

Located on Bedford Avenue, the Moxy Williamsburg is a 216-room boutique hotel with space-saving design solutions, three food and beverage concepts, and a Dolly Parton-inspired nighttime lounge with a custom-built sound system. This South Williamsburg hotel, which is also within the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio, joins five other Moxy properties throughout Manhattan, specifically on the Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, East Village, Chelsea and Times Square.

“As we were thinking about this hotel, as we were developing it, we really wanted it to be a reflection of this very vibrant, creative community,” said Mike Hoover, the Moxy Williamsburg’s general manager. “So, we’re super contingent that there needs to be this mesh point between the community and our hotel guests.”

The hotel’s lobby area is known as Bar Bedford and undergoes a day-to-night transformation. In the morning, Bar Bedford presents a light breakfast spread that could include yogurts, fruits and baked good; barista service is also available. An all-day bar menu of lighter fare starts at noon.

During the course of the day, the lobby serves as a community co-working space where out-of-own hotel guests and Brooklynites sprawled out on couches and engrossed with their laptops. As the day turns into dusk, Bar Bedford switches over to a cocktail bar with a DJ through Thursday through Saturday; jazz music is presented on Sunday.

“It was something that was a void in the neighborhood,” noted Hoover. “We see it embraced by the residents of South Williamsburg very, very much. “We want everyone to feel welcome here and make this the living room of the community.”

Hoover noted that his favorite feature within the Bar Bedford space is the motorized liquor risers within bar space. These overhead fixtures were designed in remembrance of automats – a one-time fast food restaurant concept where basic foods and drinks orders were served only by vending machines–that were once prominent in New York City.

The onsite and dinner only Mesiba restaurant is described as a festive Tel Aviv–inspired restaurant whose name is said to translate as “party” in Hebrew. Its interior design is a nod to Tel Aviv’s Bauhaus architecture, with curved sections and eschewing ornamentation.