As usual, NY 1’s Brooklyn reporter, Jeanine Ramirez, has the scoop on the opening of the Union Street Holiday Inn. It’s set to open at the end of July.

There is still lots of work to do at Brooklyn’s newest hotel, set to open in two weeks. It’s a Holiday Inn with 115 rooms.

The building is located on Union Street between Third and Fourth avenues. On one side is a fuel company parking lot, the other side are apartment buildings, and across the street are multiple car repair shops. Hotel officials are promoting the neighborhood as Park Slope.

“On one map they have Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, and this had no name. So you kind of don’t know, really,” says Cathy Pascale of Holiday Inn Express. “So we use Park Slope because it really is – it’s on the border."

But this neighborhood, just steps away from the Gowanus Canal, is known as Gowanus. The hotel offers views of downtown Brooklyn, but not the infamous canal, historically known for its murky waters and stench that’s slowly being cleaned up.

"It doesn’t smell as bad I think as it did a year ago, or maybe I’m just used to it," says Paula Zaslavsky.

Zaslavsky is just one of many who have recently discovered the Gowanus area. She runs a community arts center called the Empty Vessel Project out of a salvaged World War II rescue boat docked in the canal.

"We’re interested in the ecology of the surrounding area and the Gowanus in particular," says Dylan Gauthier of the Empty Vessel Project.

Then there’s an old storage silo on the Gowanus banks that’s been turned into an experimental arts venue called Issue Project Room.

"Artists are always in areas that are undeveloped, and it’s usually artists who create and develop in the area and pioneer a neighborhood, so to speak," says Suzanne Fiol of Issue Project Room.

And where the artists go, developers are not far behind.

“I think the neighborhood is really blowing up,” says Park Slope resident Kathleen Bennett. “I notice a lot of little new spaces, restaurants, bars coming up. I can’t wait to see it in five years.”

Construction for a Whole Foods supermarket is already underway, and a second hotel is planned. Still there’s mixed reaction to this first one.

“I think a hotel is great because if I have family come I don’t have any place for them to go,” says one man.

“I think these kinds of things should be stuck in more commercial areas of Brooklyn because it’s just an eyesore,” says another.

Hotel officials say they promise to be good neighbors, and have already hired more than two dozen Brooklyn residents.

The Holiday Inn Express is scheduled to open on July 24th, and the staff says because their doors are not open yet, it’s better to call the hotel directly for reservations than to go online. Rates here start at about $130 a night.