Mayor orders closure of Kew Gardens hotel after New Year’s Day murder

Bullet holes riddle the entrance of the Umbrella Hotel in Kew Gardens in August 2020. Photo courtesy of Daniel Rosenthal

By David Brand

Mayor Bill de Blasio has ordered the city to shut down a troubled Kew Gardens hotel after a triple shooting on New Year’s Day left a 20-year-old man dead, he told reporters Monday. 

The Jan. 1 killing of Robert Williams was the city’s first murder of 2021 and the latest violent attack at the Umbrella Hotel in Kew Gardens, already the scene of two shootings in the summer of 2020. The Queens Boulevard hotel, steps from Queens Borough Hall, has been marred by crime throughout the COVID pandemic — sometimes literally. An August shooting left the revolving glass door riddled with bullet holes.  

“I do want the hotel closed,” de Blasio said. “I instructed my team to move to close the hotel immediately.”

De Blasio said the city is checking its “legal powers” before a closure can take effect, however.

“I want it closed and I think it’s been a blight on the community and should not be that going forward,” he added

Despite de Blasio’s instructions to his staff, the hotel remained open Monday morning. A receptionist who answered the phone declined to answer questions and said a manager may be available to talk later in the day.

Umbrella Hotel management has not responded to requests for comment.

De Blasio’s comments at a press briefing Monday came as local leaders urge the city to take aggressive action following a series of violent offenses, illicit partying and community complaints at the Umbrella Hotel.

“For months, we have joined the Kew Gardens community in calling for this location to be shut down,” said Assemblymember Daniel Rosenthal. “City Hall’s failure to act in a timely manner resulted in this preventable and atrocious tragedy.”

The lodgings, located near the Queens district attorney’s office and the Queens Criminal Court building, once catered to airport travelers and people visiting Queens on courthouse business. When the COVID pandemic limited tourism and shut down the courts, the Umbrella Hotel lowered rates, allowing people to rent out blocks of rooms to host large group gatherings, Rosenthal has said.

In November, various city agencies issued 15 summonses and fines against the Umbrella Hotel and its operator, but the problems have persisted, local officials say. 

It is “time for the Umbrella Hotel, which has already been cited for numerous public safety violations, to be shut down,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.