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By Jeri Clausing. In Times Square, InterContinental Hotels Group is preparing to open a flagship for its eponymous luxury InterContinental brand.

The 36-story, glass-exterior InterContinental New York Times Square includes a 3,000-square-foot presidential suite, with views of Battery Park at one end and Central Park at the other. The lobby will have an open garden feel, and the building’s material is a mix of wood, glass and stone.

About five blocks away, Hyatt’s Andaz brand is putting the finishing touches on what will be its second property in the Big Apple. Hyatt officials say their lifestyle brand targets customers who are both professional and bohemian. One of its hallmarks is the elimination of barriers, meaning there is no front desk and no traditional bar for a bartender to stand behind in its nightclub.

Also set to open soon in Manhattan: a second Gansevoort, a new W downtown and a Setai, which like the new InterContinental and Andaz will offer a modern, chic approach to upscale hospitality.

While these hotels are very much at the forefront of a new generation of high-end hotels, they also, somewhat paradoxically, represent the end of an era. They are among a handful of properties that represent the last newbuild hotels that this city, and most of North America, will see enter the upper-upscale and luxury arena for the next few years.

Financing for high-end hotels virtually dried up in North America when the credit markets crashed in 2008. While many hotels were just getting started then, few deals for new high-end hotels have been signed since. Although financing has begun to loosen a bit and plans for a few new high-end properties have been announced this year, most big brands have been focusing expansion efforts overseas in markets like Asia and Latin America.

Of 33 hotels scheduled to open this year in New York, about a half dozen fall into the high-end tiers of upscale and luxury. Next year, only 10 hotels are set to open in the city, just one of which will fit the luxury category, according to NYC & Company.

In 2012, only two hotels are set to open in New York: a Four Seasons downtown and a Hyatt Place in Brooklyn. This trend is playing out across the country as the robust flow that began in the boom years of 2007 and early 2008 begins to dry up.

According to Lodging Econometrics, only 715 hotels representing 80,830 guestrooms will open in the U.S. this year. That’s down 54% from last year. And the number of openings will drop to 654 hotels, with 63,141 rooms, in 2011.

All told, Lodging Econometrics said, at the end of the first quarter of this year, there were 3,395 projects with a total of 396,797 rooms in the U.S. pipeline, including projects in the planning and construction phases.

Of those, only 27 are luxury hotels, and only 80 fall in the upper-upscale category.

The bulk of development has focused on the midscale brands without food and beverage, such as Holiday Inn Express and Fairfield Inn, and the upscale markets, such as Courtyard by Marriott and Staybridge Suites.

Even in New York, most of the hotels in the pipeline are brands that previously were almost nonexistent in Manhattan. Staybridge Suites, by IHG, for example, recently opened its first property in Manhattan. The hotel, which offers all the traditional extended-stay hotel benefits, like an in-room kitchen, breakfast and evening happy hours, is on 40th Street, across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal and right next to a Fairfield Inn and a Four Points by Sheraton.

All that spells good news for existing luxury hotels, which were hit the hardest in the downturn as rates plummeted and new inventory flooded many markets.

"Really, this is the last year supply will be coming in at the high end," Laurence Geller, president and CEO of Strategic Hotels & Resorts, said at the recent New York University hotel investment conference, noting that the falloff in supply, coupled with an uptick in demand, will help rates recover.

"How high can rates go if there is no new supply?" Geller asked a panel of high-end operators.

Mitesh Shah, CEO of Noble Investment Group, predicted luxury rates would start moving back to 2007 levels by 2013, then move up another 10%.

Others on the panel agreed that given the drop-off in supply, they expected rates would peak higher than during the last boom before new supply would catch up to temper the hikes.

While most major development is now focused overseas, the big companies are also aggressively scouring for the next round of opportunities, whether newbuilds or conversions, to continue growing their high-end brands here at home.

John Wallis, global head of marketing and brand strategy for Hyatt Hotels, said the target for Andaz was to have one "in every gateway city in the world."

Carlson Hotels, which recently announced it was bringing its upper-upscale Radisson Blu brand to the U.S., is scouring opportunities in all of North America’s key markets. It recently landed its first deal for a property, in Chicago.

Even mature brands such as InterContinental, which has a presence in most North American cities, is looking for growth in the U.S. While the Times Square hotel is expected to replace its aging Barclay property on the upper East Side as the brand’s Big Apple flagship, executives said they would still like to add two or three more InterContinental properties in New York.

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