New York: Ian Schrager, the New York developer who pioneered the boutique hotel concept, has bid on three sites in Manhattan as he starts a company focused on both luxury properties and trendy, less-expensive ones.
The company, Schrager Hotels, will build new hotels and renovate properties of about 1,000 rooms in "gateway" cities such as Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Paris, Schrager said in an interview.
The New York bids, in lower Manhattan and Midtown, consist of two land parcels and one existing hotel that he didn't identify. The company plans to develop 10 to 15 locations at a cost of $250 million (Dh917.5 million) in the next five years, he said yesterday.
"Every major city of America, they have these large hotels that have been built 30 or 40 or 50 years ago that have been languishing," Schrager said. "We think that's perfect for us to go in there and sort of ‘Schrager-ize'."
The 64-year-old hotelier is selling his stake in New York's Gramercy Park Hotel as he starts the new chains. The deal is being struck with partner RFR Holding LLC, led by developer Aby Rosen. Schrager declined to disclose the price for his stake, saying only the offer was "too good to refuse".
"There isn't anything I wouldn't sell in my life — except my wife and kids," he said. "If you walked into my house and saw a piece of furniture you liked, and you made the right offer, you could walk away with it."
Recovery
The hotel industry is showing signs of recovery after the US recession. Occupancies in the top 25 US markets climbed to 65 per cent this year through October from 61 per cent in the same period in 2009, according to Smith Travel Research Inc. of Hendersonville, Tennessee. Revenue per available room, or revpar, increased 6.5 per cent to $76.87.
New York City hotel room rates rose 6.9 per cent in October from a year earlier to an average $273 a night, according to Smith Travel. Revenue per available room climbed 6.9 per cent to $231, even as occupancy remained unchanged at 85 per cent.
