Westin Hotel opens with a bang.

With descriptions that ranged from New York City's newest landmark to the latest signature building to grace the city's skyline, the Westin Hotel New York at Times Square officially opened its door during a lavish ceremony held Oct. 16.

"This is the newest landmark at the crossroads of the world," said Daniel Tishman, chairman of Tishman Realty & Construction Co., Inc., developers and owners of the project.

Located on West 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue, the 45-story, $300 million property is the largest hotel built from the ground up in Manhattan in 17 years.

Developed, owned and built by Tishman Realty & Construction Co., Inc. affiliates, the 863-room hotel is operated by Westin Hotels & Resorts. Westin is a division of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., the largest hotel operator in Manhattan.

"This building is like no other," Tishman said. "It truly performs as a hotel and as theater."

Many of the speakers at last week's ceremony pointed out the economic benefits of the project. Construction of the project created 2,000 construction jobs and, once all the rooms are fully opened in January, the hotel will have 500 permanent employees and another 100 employees at various vendors such as valet parking attendants, audio/visual specialists, and floral designers.

The Westin is under a 99-year ground lease with the city and state. Through the construction period and the first 20 years of operations, it is projected to pay $50.1 million in ground rent to the city and state, excluding real estate taxes.

For the same time period, the hotel will generate over $297 million in occupancy and sales taxes to the city and state. The break down is as follows: $10.6 million in occupancy tax (based on $2 per room night), $96.7 million in city tax (based on 5% of rooms revenues), $159.6 million in state sales tax (based on 8.25% of rooms revenues) and $30.5 million of state sales tax (based on 8.25% of food & beverage, telephone, etc.)

The Westin was designed by the architectural firm Arquitectonica, and is a 45-story prism with a unique skin comprised of 8,000 sheets of glass, back-painted in ten different colors, intended to serve as a microcosm of the multi-faceted forces that converge on Times Square, according to a project description distributed at the opening.

Arquitectonica principals Bernando Fort-Brescia and Laurinda Hope Spear led the designing team. The hotel is comprised of two components: A 9-story mid-rise portion containing 126 executive club rooms and suites and a high-rise tower housing 713 guest rooms and suites. The mid-rise component acts as a transitional element between E Walk and the hotel tower, mediating the scale between the realistic billboards below and the abstract expressionism of the tower above.

"We approached this hotel as a monumental canvas, capable of unfolding the graphic power of architecture through communicating the revelry and multi-media vocabulary of Times Square. It was our intention to have the building perform theatrically because it is in the most famous entertainment district in the world," said Fort-Brescia and Hope Spear.