NEW YORK CITY-As it prepares to open a 600-room hotel near Times Square next month, InterContinental Hotels Group PLC says it’s planning to nearly double its roster of New York City properties over the next few years, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The UK-based lodging chain has 15 properties on the drawing board to add to the 22 it already operates here. Among them are a Hotel Indigo boutique on 38th Street, a Crowne Plaza in Long Island City and a Holiday Inn in the Bronx.

The InterContinental New York Times Square scheduled to open on July 12 at 300 W. 44th St. could get company across Manhattan in the years to come. “We think that, ultimately, we could have three or four InterContinentals in a market like this,” Jim Abrahamson, president of IHG's Americas unit, told the Journal. He added that IHG eventually might plan on opening another InterContinental Downtown, along with another “further uptown” from the two it now operates.

IHG’s chief executive, Andrew Cosslett, expressed similar optimism about the lodging sector’s near-term future at last week’s hospitality conference sponsored by New York University. The downturn separated brands that had branding strength and roots from those that did not, he said, Coming out of the recession means solid brands will be in pretty good shape, although it spells “curtains” for “fly-by-night bling merchants.”

To read the complete Journal article, click here.