Mayor Cory Booker was full of energy yesterday morning as he celebrated a good night’s sleep — just not his own.

Instead, Booker hailed the first customer at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel nestled behind the Prudential Center on Broad Street.

"Last night was the first time someone slept in a new hotel in Newark in 40 years!" Booker told a crowd of men and women in suits. "I want to thank the builders for committing to our community."

Giant scissors were brought forth, a huge red ribbon was cut, and a busy day was well underway at the Courtyard by Marriott on Broad Street.

The $35 million project by Illinois-based Tucker Development includes 150 hotel rooms, and the street level storefronts have 14,000 square feet of space to let.

"We couldn’t be more excited about today," said Richard Tucker, president and CEO of Tucker Development. "It’s been four years in the making."

Rooms were available on Marriott’s website yesterday at prices as low as $111 a night, but most dates in the next two weeks were $199 a night.

The hotel planted at the heart of the Prudential Center development area is Newark’s first new downtown hotel in decades, though there is a cluster of relatively new hotels by the airport. There are also long-tenured hotels in the city like the Best Western Robert Treat Hotel by Military Park and the Newark Penn Station Hilton.

After the Marriott opens, others could soon follow: there are plans for a 110-room Hotel Indigo a block away at Broad Street and Edison Place, and Miles Berger, who owns Robert Treat, is planning to redo the Carlton Hotel’s 110 rooms near Public Service Enterprise Group headquarters.

"With New York City overflow and airport business, this hotel will certainly be successful," Berger said. "If there was a glut or too many rooms on the market, the hotels that should be worried about that are the hotels at the airport, not in the city."

The reason for that, Berger said, is the easy access Newark Penn Station offers to Manhattan.

Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek, a partner in the project who contributed the land under the Marriott for an equity stake, said it the Marriott isn’t just a positive sign — it will help boost Newark’s downtown as well.

"We believe, and we are bullish on the area and on redevelopment in Newark," Vanderbeek said. "Some of the major events we’ve talked with have inquired along the way about hotels near the (Prudential Center) facility ... now we don’t have to answer that question in the negative because of the Marriott opening, so it makes things better on that front."

Yesterday morning more than a dozen firefighters did a walkthrough to get familiar with the new hotel’s 150 rooms and the building’s fire alarm system.

"Anything brand new is great, anything for the city of Newark is great," said Gregory Sereico, fire chief of Newark’s Fifth Battalion. "It’s beautiful."

In the building’s lower lobby, security guards in jackets and ties monitored a screen with six different video views of the area.

Supervisors told them the drill: welcome hotel guests and direct them to either climb the stairs or take an elevator to the check-in area and bistro above.

Along with yesterday’s stream of VIP guests came another group of expectant visitors: Newarkers looking for jobs.

"I’ve been a housekeeper — I’m a neat freak," said Sadeeka Harris, 27, of Newark, who came looking for a job. "I like nice classy hotels, and it’s close to my home so I can walk here or get a bus."

A Marriott staffer told Harris the hotel received 4,000 applications and all positions were filled–but she could apply online for jobs at other locations. Harris had already tried that, she said.

Booker saluted the project for hiring more than 30 percent of its construction workers from Newark.

Tucker, whose company developed the property and owns it, said the percent goal for Newark employees to fill the hotel’s 50-75 permanent jobs was "as high as possible."

"The hires so far for the hotel exceed 50 percent (Newark residents)," Tucker said.

More jobs are still to come, Tucker said, when the property’s retail space is rented out.

Eliot Caroom: (973) 392-7919, ecaroom@starledger.com and @eliotter on Twitter