As others have mentioned, the Marquis would probably be the best overall choice. I've stayed there a few times and always have been upgraded to a Times Square view room. ^ Unfortunately, based on some posts in this forum, I do believe the Marquis has been bit by the "Don't Overachieve" bug though. And the food offerings in the CL may not be as good as they used to be.

Personally as for location, we were able to get around using the subway system, so the location of either the Eastside or Downtown aren't necessarily show stoppers. While I have not stayed in the Downtown hotel, I did have some trouble finding my way around and saw the hotel. Even though we weren't staying there, the hotel staff were great to us. They helped direct us to where we wanted to go, gave us all some chilled bottled water (it was hot that day), gave me their number to call if we had any problems. ^ So I wouldn't have any problems giving the Downtown hotel a chance the next time I'm in NYC.