Since that time it appears B.R Guest has taken a step back from the property as the restaurant has been renamed “Beachwood BBQ & Grill” instead of B.R Guest’s Wildwood BBQ & Grill that it was originally named as, there is almost no mention of Postcard Inn on B.R Guest’s website except for an RFP page that is pretty hidden and it is listed on Hersha Hospitality Management’s website as one of their managed properties.

I came across an article in the Miami Herald that talked about the Holiday Isle resort property, located in the Florida Keys, that was foreclosed upon by Starwood Capital in 2009. Starwood in conjunction with Hersha Hospitality Management put the property under a $10 million renovation over the summer and has finished the first part of the renovation – renaming it Postcard Inn Beach Resort and Marina, including opening a Shula’s burger (oddly – not a B.R Guest restaurant) and keeping it in the same design class as the original Postcard Inn in St Pete’s beach, including the lower price point.

From the tone of the article as well as the content of the website – the renovation is not 100% completed yet, hence the quiet release of the website and new brand name, but according to the article the new hotel will “open” in December 2011.

So could this be a new Starwood Capital brand that has slipped in under the radar? Can this brand be replicated in non-beachy locations? We’ll have to see, but it’s an interesting development to see another Postcard Inn.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

There is no information on branding of the property – which is of special interest to those who follow Starwood Capital & Barry Sternlicht – so no word on if it will be a “Sternlicht inspired” hotel (eg – 1Hotel or Baccarat),or if it will be a Hyatt or other established brand. But they did have a picture, and some basic facts – 340,000 sq ft, 120 key 5-star hotel, and another 140,000 sqft of residential with hotel amenities.

It’s difficult to tell just by the appearance of the building – but it does show a few elements which could be unique – an outside pool deck area mid-building and a grassy/tree-filled terrace on the upper third of the building as well.

Starwood Capital’s Other NYC Hotel Projects

HotelNewsNow.com reported that Barry Sternlicht recently stated that he has three hotel projects currently on the drawing board in NYC: The Donnell/Tribeca Associates project mentioned above, the conversion of 1414 Ave of the Americas, and another unannounced project that he’s keeping close to the vest. Once again, there is no word or indication as to the brands of these hotels – will they be Starwood Capital brands, or will they be branded with other well established luxury brands?

I’m thinking that these projects will be some type of new or unique brand to Starwood Capital because typically they will not make a big deal in the press or market about “just another hotel transaction”. I’m sure we’ll find out one way or another over the next few months.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

I suggest anyone who is interested in Starwood Capital or Barry take a read at it.

Renaissance Man: As Starwood Capital Turns 20, Founder Barry Sternlicht Explores New Paths

Some quotes I found interesting

On Starwood’s investment in Hersha Hospitality Management:

The investment in Hersha Hospitality Management raises Starwood’s profile in hotel management. Its SH Group affilate manages the Baccarat brand and is developing four properties in the Middle East and four in China. Starwood’s investment in Hersha will help that company expand its management portfolio from about 80 properties today to as many as 200 in the next three to five years, Shah said. That growth will come from third-party management agreements, from hotels owned by Starwood funds and from managing hotels acquired by Hersha Hospitality Trust. In approaching such deals, Sternlicht takes the role of a visionary, who masters details without getting lost in them, Shah observed. “He’s a very demanding executive of his team as well as of his investors and his partners.”

On Starwood’s creation of Starwood Property Trust

Starwood Property Trust also marked Sternlicht’s return to the public markets after his departure from Starwood Hotels in 2005. In its mission, however, Starwood Property more closely resembles iStar Financial, the publicly traded investment banking firm that Sternlicht founded in 1998 and chaired until divesting Starwood’s interest in the company five years later.

I always knew that Starwood Property Trust was somewhat modeled on iStar Financial.

Lastly, it’s interesting to me that Sternlicht has some of the same interests as me:

The hotel business, meanwhile, had proven to be tailor-made for Sternlicht’s wide-ranging interests in capital markets, operations, marketing and design

andrew@alconic-inc.com

Why would they do that?

What company would not want to join up with a highly reputable competitor, plus put some money in their pocket? Have better opportunities due to the association, more money to do transactions with and just go to the next level of the business?

Starwood Property Trust was presenting an unconditional offer for the entire company as long as they did not go through with the share dilution they were about to price the next day. In fact, Starwood was even willing to go through with the pending purchase of mortgage assets from Barclay Capital Real Estate as long as they had 5 days to review the documents. So now Crexus stockholders are burdened with a share price that is lower than it was on Monday.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Barclay Capital Real Estate portfolio was also being pursued by Starwood Property Trust, who lost out on it to Crexus. Starwood then thought it may make sense to just purchase the acquirer, and then along with Crexus’ assets, they’ll get the Barclay assets as well. How else would Starwood be able to do due dilligance on the Barclay porfolio – $528 million dollars worth – in as little as 5 days if they were not already pretty familiar with it?

Whenever takeover attempts fail, the company being taken over always has a rough road ahead of it – it has to perform a little better than it ever did before or else investors and partners will sit back and think – “They really should have sold to such and such” and end up being a much smaller and less powerful company. I hope for Crexus’ sake that doesn’t happen, their stock offering is successful and the Barclays transaction goes through without a hitch – or else Starwood (or another company) may take another stab at Crexus and win, but this time on the cheap.

What do you think? Should Crexus have taken the buyout offer? Will they be able to pull off everything? Let me know your thoughts in the comments or via email.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

Today, according to a press release from Orient-Express, it isn’t Starwood Hotels – but Starwood Capital which is taking over development of the project into a “World-Class Hotel”. So it is still possible it may be a Starwood Hotels branded hotel, I’m crossing my fingers it may be something from Starwood Capital’s hotel portfolio instead.

The press release states that Starwood Capital & Tribeca Associates

..will assume all the terms and obligations of the original contract made between Orient-Express Hotels and the New York Public Library, including the reimbursement of all previous payments made by Orient-Express Hotels and the assumption of all future payments.

After some research into the original announcement and development proposal by Orient-Express back in 2007, the project was described as this:

The five-story building on West 53rd Street will be razed to make way for an 11-story hotel, but the library will own and occupy space on the first floor and underground under the terms of the deal, the two sides said. Five floors of the hotel will connect to the “21” Club on 52nd Street, also owned by Orient-Express.

With:

150 rooms costing $750 to $2,000 per night and a restaurant on the top floor.

The hotel was originally going to be called “21″ based on Orient-Express’s “21 Club” but with the new ownership group, its doubtful it will be a 21, although there still is a chance it may connect to the 21 Club.

I’m eager to see what Starwood Capital chooses to brand this site, as well as a their other recent purchase of 1414 Ave of the Americas only 5 blocks North.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

In the last few hours my email inbox has been bombarded with news that Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital has purchased 1414 Ave of the Americas in Manhattan for a conversion into a hotel. This is pretty exciting news because its one of the first purchases that Starwood has made in years on a property to be converted or built from scratch in the lodging industry. I’m not going to sit here and claim that hospitality development is finally on the upswing because of this purchase; but I will say that Starwood Capital would not have moved on this property if there was not the potential of a huge upside. Purchasing a 110,000 sqft 18 story, almost 100 year old building, one block from Central Park in mid-town Manhattan for $72 million is a pretty darn good deal.

1414 Ave of the Americas is a pretty low-key building, for years it was used as office space and ground floor retail, although in 2009 it made the news when Ian Schrager was looking at it for one of his hotels (prior to Edition). Unfortunately at the time the owner lost the property when the mortgage was sold and Schrager’s project never got off the ground.

The building was even originally built as a hotel – and apparently KISS had outdoor concerts on the rooftop years ago, although I cant seem to find any information as to when the place was last a hotel – the earliest article I could find about the property was from 1992 when SL Green first purchased it and converted it from a “shoe building” (catered mainly to the footwear industry) into regular professional office space.. And professional office space its been since then, although now it is almost completely vacant – making it ready for an immediate renovation.

There already has been some speculation that Schrager may be involved with this new purchase – but I find that highly unlikely.. It would be a huge reversal for Sternlicht as his name will bring the same (and probably even more) cachet to any hotel project.. Barry may not have “invented” the boutique hotel industry – but he definitely did popularize it and make it mainstream.

So what could the future hold for 1414 Ave of the Americas? Its tough to say.. Will Starwood & Sternlicht team up with Hyatt or Starwood Hotels or even use his brands from Groupe Du Louvre (Golden Tulip) or perhaps some other large luxury hotel brand? Or will this finally be the beginning of a long line of hotels from the SH Group which never really got off the ground after the economic shakedown of the past few years..

Ah – this news will have my heart pumping fast tonight!

andrew@alconic-inc.com

Schrager also announced in the same press release that he was selling his interest in the Gramercy Park Hotel, which has been a great success – but not without unrest between him and partner Aby Rosen.

With Schrager Hotels, Schrager is looking to create two distinct hotel brands – as I mentioned in this post a little under two months ago. He’s looking to launch then in “24 hour cities” around the world, and has already placed bids on a number of properties in New York City, is currently proceeding with renovations on his purchase of Chicago’s Ambassador hotel and recently took a tour of the Chelsea Hotel in NYC, but deemed it not right for what he’s looking at. And by the way – I’ve never seen so much press coverage about a hotel developer taking a walking tour of a hotel in my life, are we that desperate for news lately?!

Schrager Hotels currently is still using the IanSchragerCompany.com domain name/website – typing in SchragerHotels.com just redirects to his primary website, which in itself has not been updated in years – it’s entry on edition hotels is still listed with the original press release, and doesn’t even refer to the brand by name yet (if you remember – the partnership was announced, but it was a few months before the name was chosen). Details about the 2 new brands are still difficult to come by. Today’s press release only stated that the new company will have

..one luxury lifestyle brand and one that will be reasonably priced. Both new brands will be rolled out in 24 international gateway cities around the world with the first opening in Chicago in 2011. (The Ambassador which should open in the Fall)

I’m curious to see where Schrager will take these new hotel brands and exactly how they will be positioned, will the reasonably priced brand be priced similar to Starwood’s Aloft? Or will it be priced similar to a Sheraton/Westin, yet have the W Hotel feel? I predict the luxury brand will easily be positioned within the same level as the Four Seasons, or Ritz-Carlton – yet have a boutiquey feel, pretty similar to his creations with Morgan’s Hotel Group. From the story in today’s WSJ about the launch, the hotels in the less expensive brand will have hundreds of rooms, leading to the possibility that they could be convention center hotels, a unique pairing which I dont believe has been done yet – “stylish hotel convention centers”.

I also saw mentioned today that he is looking into hotels that have been in major cities for 30-40 years and need loving touches to bring them up to par to standards that people expect when staying in a hotel.

One thing I do like – and it sets the tone of his company and brands is the logo. I’m always fascinated by the logos that companies choose to represent for their brands – the good brands will choose a logo that has more than one meaning – not just a graphical representation of the comapny’s name.. A good logo will also set the tone of the brand – be it classy, funky, elegant, modern, etc.. Schrager Hotels does both of that. Let me explain how.. The logo is clearly a “SH” with the H superimposed over the S – but it can also appear as though the H is made up of two I’s – standing for Ian. Additionally the font they used is a font which reminds me of the Gothic look – which is excatly what some of his past creations have shown in their designs, case in point: the Gramercy Park Hotel.

In my opinion, there are really only two people who really set the standard for whats “next” in hotels – Barry Sternlicht and Ian Schrager. It will be fun to watch this brand grow and become what Morgans Hotel Group could have been.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

Today, she posted a story giving some details – not too many though – in fact many details aren’t even set in stone by Schrager himself.. But in a nutshell, he’s looking to create two new hotel brands, kinda like Morgans Hotel Group Pt II; a high end brand, and a low end brand.

Not surprisingly, the article states that neither of the brands will be considered competition to the Edition brand – but surprisingly he considers Edition a mid-tier hotel brand, whereas I always considered it pretty high-end luxury.

In fact, he states:

How would this compare to an Edition hotel, if hypothetically, one were to open in the same city? In the case the Ambassador East hotel, it would be the cheaper of the two, he said.

The first hotel will be the former Ambassador East in Chicago which Schrager purchased in April of this year with the intention of gutting it and putting his own name on it, instead of Edition as most expected.

Schrager’s idea of low priced boutique hotel may still be out most people’s budget, personally, I think low-priced boutique hotels would be in the range of $150-200, but Schrager is expecting the Ambassador East to average $225 a night.

The article also goes to mention that the company will grow slowly and look to purchase older, worn out hotels that haven’t been put to their full use in years. (I can think of one hotel which would be a great purchase – the Berkeley Carteret in Asbury Park – that would fit that criteria to the T).

Schrager isn’t out to re-prove himself, he’s done it already, I think he wants to create these brands, and these properties because he wants to and he feels there is a need to be filled. I think if Schrager can make a boutique brand at a low price point, it will really turn the boutique hotel industry on its head.

Going back to the comment about purchasing older, worn out hotels; I can almost picture it now: Ian Schrager as the Statue of Liberty “give me your tired, your poor……”

andrew@alconic-inc.com

Not much has been said about the property or the project – in fact the former Renaissance has been closed and deserted since 2007 leading to speculation as to what will go there.

Last week, with Hyatt Hotels, Starwood Capital announced that they will be starting a joint venture to open an Andaz Resort & Residences on the property, it’s due to open in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The Former Renaissance Wailea

Starwood Capital already has a number of Hyatt Hotels in their portfolio, off the top of my head I know they own the Hyatt Regency New Orleans, and one in Chicago as well, so dealing with Global Hyatt isn’t exactly something new to them (I’m sure some will find that hard to believe!) In fact, this joint venture is a very good deal for Starwood Capital.

According to their press release, Hyatt will be contributing around $90 million for the renovation and improvements for the property, and the press release didn’t mention it, but Starwood’s biggest expense will most likely just be the land and it’s existing buildings. That’s a HUGE discount from the initial capital expense Starwood would have had to incur for the construction of the Baccarat hotel; not only would they have to tear down the existing buildings, but Baccarat required a completely different site plan and appearance than exists on the current site. Plus, even though Andaz isn’t a W or Baccarat or other Barry Sternlicht creation – the Andaz brand does have the design and architecture ethos that is typical for a Sternlicht creation.

I’ll be interested to see how the property ends up looking – all the Andaz’s so far have not disappointed in appearance and unique style, I’m sure this one won’t disappoint either.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

New York Magazine scored a great interview with him, and ended up reminding me that it was Barnett’s Extell that sold the building that currently houses the W Times Square to Starwood Hotels in 2001.

This is the same building, located on 47th St, behind the Roxy Deli where Robert Earl originally planned to open the first Planet Hollywood Hotel (back in 1997) which was to be managed by Sheraton, at the time known as ITT-Sheraton before being purchased by Starwood Hotels. (And everyone thought that Sheraton managing the Planet Hollywood Las Vegas was out of left field).

The project languished without even getting off the ground for a number of years, with Gary Barnett finally taking ownership of the property, and building it out. Then right as it was about to open, the events of 9/11 occurred, the project was once again put on hold because travel essentially dropped. Gary Barnett ended up having Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Hotels purchase the property and open it as one of W Hotel’s flagship properties.  The W Times Square is still owned by Starwood Hotels to this day.

I knew about this years ago and have been looking for information on it since then. Finally! My questions have been answered.

andrew@alconic-inc.com