Earlier this week I got an email from a purchaser at the Cosmopolitan who forwarded me one of the newsletters that I assume all those who placed a condo deposit have received. The newsletter contained the exact amount of content on the status of the project and the direction it was going in as I expected — hardly any. Besides having a Q&A with two real estate agents who purchased a unit in the building and doing a profile on The Related Companies, which looked like it came directly from it’s corporate bio the newsletter didn’t provide anything but a web address that I’ve never seen before – www.lvcosmo.com.

Not too long ago the main Cosmopolitan website (www.cosmolv.com) was taken down and is “Under Construction”, this new website doesn’t really contain any information on the project except showing some new renderings and having placeholders for video, news, meeting and convention space bookings and job openings. It seems as though this is what the new CosmoLV.com might look like.

One glaring part missing from both the newsletter and the website is any sign of a hotel operator. I’m still expecting it to be a W Hotel, but the purchaser who emailed me said she was told by Cosmo sales agents that Hyatt is still the hotel operator and not W.

For all those who placed a deposit on the property – this is good news, it’s even more proof that the project is continuning and to stop worrying about losing your deposit! Since The Related Company took over, construction has been proceeding and their experience in the construciton and management of large mixed use complexes (the most well-known one is the Time Warner Center in NYC) ensures that it will be done quickly and without much further delay. Additionally, the current owner of the Cosmopolitan has said that the costs for construction are fully funded and construction is proceeding at full speed.

Rest easily in knowing that finally the end is near.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

The story of the Cosmopolitan is so interesting to me that I actually went out and bought a book titled High Rise by Jerry Adler about another one of Bruce Eichner’s projects – 1540 Broadway in New York City. For those familiar with the Times Square area – that building now houses the Virgin Megastore.

In anycase, whenever news comes out about the Cosmopolitan I follow it closely..

Today’s news is from GlobeSt.com (the link won’t work after 7 days) in which they announced how a parking development waiver has been granted until mid-2010. (Huh?) But the article also had a trove of other information – while leaving out one major piece.

-An estimated 1,800 condo units are under contract out of a total of 3,000 condo units

-The property is now owned by “Nevada Property One” an affiliate of Deutsche Bank – so the property is now out of Eichner’s hands, and in the hands of Deutch Bank the original mortgage holder who foreclosed on the property

-The Related Companies has been brought in to oversee the end of the development of the project. So the initial rumor of Related purchasing the property has some validity in it.. I’m sure we’ll see Related fully own the property by the time it’s been completed, or soon after since they normally are not just construction supervisors. Plus, I doubt Deutsche Bank is going to want to own the property long term.

-The Perini Co’s who is the general contractor on the project since day one has been given a “Guaranteed Maximum Price Contract” which means they are guaranteed to get a certain price when the project is completed. So construction is currently in full swing – with 100% intent to completely finish the project.

-Originally scheduled to be completed in late 2009, the final completion date is to be mid-2010 due to the delays brought on by the foreclosure process.

-$1 billion worth of work is still to be completed on the project

While mentioning that it was to be a condo-hotel there was nothing said about the hotel operator of the project. Would it still be Hyatt? Is W going to be opening there? Or is it some other hotel operator?

I searched on Hyatt’s website for new properties and for the first time noticed that the Cosmopolitan was not listed as one of their future properties, suggesting that Hyatt is no longer part of the project. The other location where I have seen Hyatt listed was at the Cosmopolitan’s website – but today I see how the website has been removed and replaced with an message saying the Cosmopolitan and it’s website are currently under construction.

I think it’s still a good chance we’ll see a huge announcement in 2009 about the W coming to Las Vegas in the Cosmopolitan, and it will be a huge win for W, especially since their first Vegas project fizzled – this has the potential to be an even better location and an even better project for W, and will easily raise the status of the Cosmopolitan.

As I’ve promised many readers of the blog, I’ll keep you posted with future updates as I ahve them on the Cosmopolitan.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

Originally announced in January of 2008, it was supposed to be the hotel component of Flag Luxury Properties Temenos Anguilla resort property. Originally to be branded as a St Regis (when the project was announced in 2004) it apparently ended up being changed to a Baccarat Hotel & Residences location. The hotel was supposed to be finished by the end of the year – but from what I’ve heard from a few locals who have emailed me, it’s nowhere near being finished (can someone update me on that fact?).

Once the initial announcement was made a website immediately went live – www.baccaratanguilla.com, and I expected to see over time additional components added to it – pictures, descriptions, condo layouts – but instead the website went completely inactive over the summer. Additionally, the BaccaratHotels.com page redirected to the main Temanos Anguilla website rather than the BaccaratAnguilla.com site. Now, the BaccaratHotels.com site doesn’t even link to or mention anything about Baccarat Anguilla. The Temanos Anguilla website now has no mention of the Baccarat branded hotel, all references to it have been removed.

What happened?

Barry Sternlicht and Robert FX Sillerman – the principal behind Flag Luxury Properties have a history of working together on projects. Barry was still a part of Starwood Hotels when the St Regis was initially announced for the Anguilla project, and they are both principals in Riv Acquisition Holdings – the company that owns a portion of and is trying to take over the Riveria Casino in Las Vegas, so its not like Baccarat and Flag Luxury had a relationship like most other developers/hotel companies.

I was all set to just write this off to another casualty of the problems with getting credit – Starwood Capital isn’t exactly going gangbusters opening up their new brands like they were initially expected too – but then I came across a comment posted to my blog earlier today which inferred that the project has financial difficulties – with the management some how misleading the property owners about some aspect of the project. (Maybe that the centerpiece component a Baccarat Hotel will no longer be a part of the development?)

So it still could be a simple issue due to the credit crisis, or it could be a more underlying issue with the way business is being conducted at the property (which I hope is not the case – since Flag Luxury is a reputable company).

No matter what the real reason is – it sounds like Baccarat is permanently out of the equation for the Anguilla property, and the actual completion of the property will not occur as scheduled for late 2008. As for why I’ve been getting so many visits related to the Baccarat Anguilla post – its could be related to the lack of news on a project that property owners have already made deposits for.

We’ll see what the future holds for this property.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

Now that the hotel is soon to open, and the website has launched with some detailed pictures, the game plan of SLS Hotels, as well as it’s owner and it’s owners firm really starts to come into focus.

Last week was a great article in the Wall Street Journal about Sam Nazarian – before the article, all I knew about him was he was some nightclub big shot in LA, had a company SBE Entertainment, recently bought the Sahara Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, and was starting a new hotel chain called SLS Hotels.

SLS Beverly Hills Exterior

SLS Beverly Hills Entrance

SLS Beverly Hills Lobby

SLS Beverly Hills Restaurant

SLS Beverly Hills Pool Area

The thing that really got me interested in him was SLS’s affiliation with Starwood’s Luxury Collection Brand, plus his quest to build a chain of these SLS Hotels (PS: SLS Miami is next after the SLS Beverly Hills opens by the end of the year).

Normally if someone is going to build a chain of hotels that they create their own brand for – they are not going to partner up with Starwood, Marriott and the like – Nazarian on the other hands seems to be building a chain of hotels, unique and original, while having Starwood’s Luxury Collection manage them. If he continues this with the SLS Miami, and future SLS locations – he’s a genius!

Here’s why: He’s opening up a chain of hotels – from the looks of the SLS Beverly Hills, and his habit of using Phillip Stark to design his developments, they will all be high end boutique hotels, but rather than invest in the management portion of the hotels, he’s hiring Starwood to handle the day-to-day operations of ordering supplies, hiring and training employees, etc. But by using the Luxury Collection brand – he is still able to fully promote his own brand without stepping on Starwood’s feet.. Starwood’s Luxury Collection is designed for hotels that have their own brand, are top-tier, but are looking for the backing of a world-wide hotel operator to handle the management and most importantly – ability to connect to their booking system and member rewards program.

In a nutshell, he’s getting the promotional and marketing push of Starwood, while simultaneously creating and expanding his own hotel brand. Wow. That’s pretty smart. It almost feels like he’s cheating in the whole “building a hotel brand from scratch kinda thing”.

Nazarian also owns or has an interest in a few other hotels – a DoubleTree in California, two Sheratons, and two Hilton Garden Inns – definitely nothing too extravagant, and all of the hotels are managed by other company’s (APMC Group and Kor Hotels), so he is not completely new to hotels – but starting a hotel brand from scratch is new.

Another really interesting piece of the Nazarian empire is his purchase of the Sahara Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. I personally keep forgetting that the Sahara is still open and in business (WSJ’s article says rooms are $34 bucks a night) thinking that it was one of those hotels imploded like every other original Las Vegas hotel was. So it goes without saying that a huge renovation is in the cards – and is currently in progress, but according to the WSJ article – a lot of people are not sure that he is able to really pull it off and have a successful hotel once it re-opens in 2011.

Nazarian’s intention of the Sahara is to become hotel for the hip-crowd, the same people who frequent his nightclubs who are center to the LA lifestyle that he is used too serving. He claims that there really is no other casino who caters toward that lifestyle and there is a huge undeserved market for that type of customer, at a price point that they can afford. Sure, the Hard Rock Casino caters toward a younger crowd, so does the Palm – but look at their nightly prices.. You’re talking sometimes $400-500 bucks for a room. Nazarian is saying that he will get room rates to around $200 a night, while giving the customers places to go by opening up locations of his existing nightclubs within the Sahara.

I think its a great idea.

But I’m more interested in the SLS brand and its growth potential.

Since SLS is planning on opening in Miami after their Beverly Hills location opens – i decided to see if they took up any domain names, as its a very good possibility that if they scoop up the domain names, they have plans to open a hotel there – maybe not now, but definitely in the future..

Here are some domains the SLS has taken: www.SLSNewYork.com, www.SLSBoston.com, www.SLSLasVegas.com, www.SLSMiami.com, www.SLSSanFrancisco.com, www.SLSWashingtonDC.com, www.SLSLosAngeles.com and www.SLSBeverlyHills.com (the last two are expected though) entering any of those domains takes you to the main www.SLSHotels.com website.

Some domains that didn’t work – www.SLSPhiladelphia.com, www.SLSChicago.com, www.SLSScottsdale.com, www.SLSPhoenix.com, www.SLSAtlanta.com

Once again – you really can’t base a hotel’s opening on what domain names are taken and what are not – especially this early in the game, but it’s definitely worth noting that they have taken the time to get those names, so it means that someone somewhere is considering those locations.

I’ll be keeping an eye on SBE Entertainment and their projects – especially the Sahara and SLS.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

The only hotel that is currently available to be booked is the Element Lexington (which is located right next to aloft Lexington) although the opening date has been moved from changed July 2008, to Oct 1st 2008. After looking at the aloft Lexington’s site – that opening date has been changed as well to September 2008 from July 2008. On a side note – the W Hotel Hoboken is now scheduled to open on December 15th 2008, rather than Oct 31st.

There is also a glaring difference in the number of elements scheduled to be opened in the next year or two vs the number of alofts. According to the “our hotels” page, only 2 elements besides the Lexington are scheduled to open in 2008, and another 12 are to open in 2009 – aloft on the other hand has at least 40 hotels scheduled to open in the next three years. I’m very curious to know if the disparity is due to element not being a big draw for developers, or if it’s just the nature of element being an extended-stay product which would not have as much of a draw as a regular select-service hotel. Starwood is an extremely smart company though – I know they would make changes if developers are not responding that well to the new brand.

Also on the our hotels page, element is encouraging you to tell them where you would like to see new elements be built. It seems like Starwood will be using that information to encourage developers to build by demonstrating a need for the product in specific locations, but it’s a big difference from aloft which is just advertising that aloft’s will simply be opening everywhere.

Element’s site is now showing some new renderings of their rooms and public spaces – which are a huge improvement compared to the initial renderings. Simply they are a matter of just adding different wall coverings, adding a little more to the actual look and feel to the spaces – but it’s very welcome as the initial renderings were a little to minimalist and just looked bare. I’m very curious to see if the exterior of the hotel will be changing from the initial renderings as well.

New Breakfast Area Rendering

Old Breakfast Area Rendering

New Lobby Rendering

Old Lobby Rendering

New Studio Room Rendering

Old Studio Room Rendering

I’m still highly highly impressed with the room designs – the beds are very luxurious looking with a cushioned leather headboard, and subtle design elements which add a lot to the feel of the room, such as the bed being recessed slightly into the wall and a wrap-around couch. The bathrooms are another great design with raised sinks and a glass walled shower – something you wouldn’t expect in a non-luxury chain hotel.

It’s a little disappointing to see the low number of Elements that are scheduled to open compared to the aloft pipeline, but it is way too early to count the brand out. With the Starwood branding machine and the great reputation that Starwood has, I think once a few locations open and word gets out, more and more locations will quickly pop up.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

Today I noticed that The Chelsea in Atlantic City has done just that – flipped the switch to their website which previously was a one page splash page taking reservations for events, and offering very simple information on the hotel. Now the site is a full fledged site offering room descriptions, restaurant names, and best of all – pictures of what to expect when the hotel finally opens Memorial Day Weekend.

The excitement about this hotel is growing – its the first “destination” hotel in Atlantic City that does not have a casino component, and even without the Casino I can easily see The Chelsea being booked solid almost every night.

I have to admit – I’m a tad bit disappointed in the decor of the hotel because I was expecting an older, nostalgic looking decor – instead it looks very modern looking, not futuristic, but contemporary/modern, although – I really don’t know what I would expect nostalgic looking decor to look like.

I found it interesting that there are two main room categories – Chelsea Luxe and Chelsea Lite. In other words, while the former Howard Johnson and Holiday Inn are now one combined hotel – there still is a difference in the quality of the room, although all the rooms in both categories are “stylish”, have complimentary wireless internet access, flat screen TVs, mini-bars, triple-sheeted beds and individual climate control systems (I don’t know any hotel nowadays that doesn’t have the last feature – from the Motel 6 all the way to the Four Seasons).

I’m very curious to see what the differences are in the room quality between the Lite & Luxe, or is it just a bigger room with a better view? For those who are not familiar with the former Holiday Inn & Howard Johnson, the Holiday Inn (Where Luxe rooms are located) is a 20-story high-rise hotel right on the boardwalk, whereas the Howard Johnson (where Lite rooms are located) was a 5-story hotel located behind the Holiday Inn.

The website continually is promoting the social life that is within The Chelsea and is primarily focused on the “Fifth Floor” which is being promoted as thee place to be:

Like a delightfully unpredictable house party, guests can roam from room to room endlessly exploring a flowing space punctuated with nooks, crannies, and hotspots such as the Terrace Lounge, the “must go” location for the over-21 crowd on the lookout for a sophisticated, hip experience outside of the casinos, the Living Room, the Bar, and the Game Room.

They are setting up The Chelsea to be a nightlife destination and I think its a refreshing change from what’s currently in Atlantic City. Not that I have a problem with Atlantic City’s nightlife (almost every casino has a club, and of course – all serve alcohol throughout the gaming floor) it’s just nice to see an environment that does not revolve around gaming in Atlantic City. It’s a place where people can go and relax and be in a busy, city environment – almost like you’d find in any major city around America. Atlantic City does not currently have that.

All in all, I hope that this will bring other Boutique hotels into Atlantic City, which will raise its popularity and profile from being more than just a gaming town – to being a destination where you can gamble if you’d like.

This type of development is what Atlantic City needs to stem the flow of dollars which are now starting to go to the new casinos in Pennsylvania.

W Hotel Atlantic City anyone?

andrew@alconic-inc.com

The aloft website features a new logo color – a purple/pink color rather than the blue that we’ve all see up until this point, and the website itself has a lot of purple/pink colors in it. No word yet if that’s the new “color” of aloft, or if they intend on changing the color as time goes on (that would actually be pretty neat – the color of the logo on the website and the background colors change every so often), or if they are just going to give aloft’s website a pink/purple color.

Click to see a bigger image

The website overall has a very hip/modern feel, which is what the aloft brand is trying to achieve. Currently it is pretty much fully functional, except obviously you cannot book any rooms due to none of the hotels actually opening yet. The aloft website currently is placed upon Starwood’s template driven website (which I mentioned about in this post) so it has the functionality of most of the other Starwood websites – facts on the hotel, photos (currently all promotional images – none specific to the individual property yet).

Since the information on the future hotels are not yet complete, I checked out an existing Starwood hotel using the aloft template to see if I could get any more information on the website – (https://www.starwoodhotels.com/alofthotels/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1234 – W Times Square) you’ll notice where the “Book Now” link will be located (between the photo montage, and text on the hotel overview page), plus I noticed that aloft is utilizing a right side menu instead of the more common left side menu for options, etc as you go through the site.

Additionally, the aloft website has a locations map built right into it (Click “areas” on the upper left corner of the screen) which shows “Future Openings” and “Ready for Stay”. This small feature is a great idea, the closest I have ever seen a competitor do something like this is Cambria Suites which currently has a site called “Cambria Suites Live” (in fact, Cambria Suites Live even has live webcams at some locations.) – except the only way I’ve been able to discover a link to it via their developer/franchise website – this type of feature should be put front and center – especially for a new hotel brand because the average guest would never care to click on the Developer/Franchise website. Starwood has linked up all of the alofts in North America opening in 2008, giving some information on the individual property. This is excellent marketing on Starwood’s part, because it’s essentially free, and builds up excitement and interest in hotels that may not open for another 1 to 2 years.

One thing that stuck out is the check-in/check-out times for all the aloft hotels are 3PM check-in with a 10AM check-out. Nothing is written in stone yet – but having a 10AM checkout is pretty early for this type of hotel. As it is, I was upset that I had to check out at 11AM from The Borgata two weeks ago – thinking that was too early, but setting a brand-wide checkout at 10AM I think is pushing it. We’ll have to see if it changes when the hotels finally open. I also wonder if it has anything to do with the unique design and layout of the aloft property – perhaps there is something that is requiring more time to clean each room? Or maybe as part of the brand promise to developers/owners they are planning on using less workers to clean the rooms, thus requiring more time in between guests’ stays?

Right after I checked out the aloft site I also checked to see if Starwood launched the Element website, (http://www.elementhotels.com)  but it still is showing its  flash intro, that hasn’t substantially changed for over a year now, but for the additions of a video and some links on the final page of the flash page. I’m hoping that the Element site will launch later today or within the next few days, as the first Element is scheduled to open almost at the same time as the first aloft (Lexington, MA) both opening July 1st, 2008.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

StarwoodCapital.com had a website for years which really wasn’t very functional. Now obviously you would have the basic information – contact information, mission statement, important principals of the firm, career information, press releases and the meat and potatoes of what makes up Starwood Capital – information on their Funds.

With this re-design, they put in a few nice touches – images of some past projects that they were involved in, an easy way to discover some of the history of Starwood – how it formed Starwood Hotels, iStar Financial, Equity Properties and so on. One new feature which I personally liked is their “Hotel Group” section.

In this section it gives some background on Starwood Capital’s hotel and lodging holdings – explaining their positions in the industry.. The fact that they have started 1 Hotel, Le Crillion & Baccarat brands from the ground up, own and manage “existing brands” such as Concorde Hotels, and the Louvre Group, and also B.R. Guest Restaurants.

To those who follow Starwood with anything more than passing interest probably are well aware of Starwood’s involvement in all of the above – yet this is the first time that Starwood is actively making mention of it on their website – front and center. Demonstrating Starwood’s probable long term commitment to these ventures, and not just a passing interest.

One section which I found very interesting was their Disclaimer where if you read through the entire disclaimer you can see just how important Barry Sternlicht is to the firm.

Two things that the new site is missing is a press release section (the press release section on their old site was not updated since July 07), and also a Careers section (which I miss – how am I supposed to apply for a job there??!!). I also wish that they would go into some more details about their holdings – for example, its well known about their investment with Twin River Casino in Rhode Island, their owning of most of the Le Meridien hotel properties outside of America – but since Starwood Capital is a privately owned company, I should be happy that they have put as much information as they have on their site… Many private investment firms are not one to boast about their holdings (besides saying they manage x billions of dollars of so and so).

Like I said previously – this website design is a non-issue for 99.9% of the people out there, but it’s a welcome change in my eyes as I’m always interested in learning as much as I can about Starwood Capital.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

Now, if you are not familiar with how web pages work and display on SmartPhones, heres a quick overview:

My phone is a “Windows Mobile” phone, so it has the same programs that you would find on most Windows PCs – Outlook, Internet Explorer, etc. Except it’s designed for smart phones which means it doesn’t include all of the features that the regular Internet Explorer would, yet you are able to see 90% of webpages, although they most likely will be distorted, small, and sometimes you will not be able to take advantage of the newer technologies that webpages currently have.. Most major corporations – or at least those who have a legitimate reason to have a website that will be frequently accessed by a mobile device (think, newspapers, transportation companies -Amtrak, NJTransit, MTA NYC, hotels, airlines, etc) usually have a special mobile only webpages – light on the graphics, very heavy on the information.

For example, Amtrak & NJTransit’s mobile page only has information on Schedules and News (delays, cancellations, etc), newspapers have all of the day’s news.

Most of these pages are accessed on a PDA by visiting their regular website which automatically detects that it’s a PDA and displays the special mobile page.

So back to my quest to make reservations via my phone:

The first website I tried was Starwood Hotels (www.starwoodhotels.com), but they did not have a specially designed mobile-friendly website, instead their normal site appeared, which while it may have display the full website, advanced features such as javascript, etc made the site inaccessible to a smart phone. The next site I tried was Expedia.com, then Travelocity, and then Orbitz – surprisingly, NONE of those sites had any type of mobile web experience! It’s amazing because you would expect those three travel sites to allow you to do simple things – view itineraries that you have purchased, confirm airline times/reservations, make, confirm, view hotel reservations – all things which a stranded traveler who has no access to anything other than a cell phone would find extremely handy in an airport or hotel lobby!

Since I knew Staten Island pretty well – I was pretty sure there wasn’t a Starwood hotel on the island – but I remembered there was a Hampton Inn & Hilton Garden Inn, so I then tried Hilton.com – to my delight they had a mobile version of their website. It worked perfectly! I entered in the City & State, they gave me all the Hilton Branded hotels in the area, told me if there were availabilities, and if so, the lowest price room at that time – all on one page! If I wanted to make a reservation I could do so – entering my credit card info on a secure server, and getting an email confirmation back almost immediately. What convenience!!

Mobile web pages are definitely not going to be highly trafficked, and don’t necessarily have to be advertised – they just have to work and be expected to work when people have a need for it. It’s one of those things that should just work – but at this stage in the game, it is not determined to be a necessity.

I hope that in the very near future any type of travel website has a mobile version of their website. It’s not something that people will be clamoring for – but it is something that people will begin to expect when they are using their smart phones, and – in the case of one company having a mobile website vs not having a mobile website could be a loss or gain of a reservation.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

Then i decided to check out Baccarat’s regular website, to see if they have updated that site to reflect their new hotel brand – they did!

If you go to Baccarat’s website – www.baccarat.com- they have added a “Hotels and Resorts” section, currently that section links to the Wailea site mentioned above, and a non-linked text that says “Turks and Ciacos (coming soon)”, and then if you click on the “Hotels and Resorts” link – it brings you to another site – www.baccarat.com/hotels.htmwhich lists the Wailea Site and also “Water Cay (To Come)”. Ah! It drives me crazy when hotel companies say “coming soon” etc – and leave you wanting more!

Lastly - I typed in www.baccaratwatercay.comto see where it links to – if anywhere – and it brings you right back to Baccarat.com.. Looks like that’s the site to watch for more information on Baccarat Water Cay (which i assume is in Turks and Caicos – anyone know for sure?)

Unlike other hotel companies (Andaz), Starwood Capital has launched websites for both their 1 Hotels & Baccarat Hotels brands – these websites, even though they may not say much can definitely help promote the brand so that when it launches, people already have a feel for the hotels. Andaz’s first hotel opening is in a mere 16 days and they have yet to activate its website. I don’t understand – doesn’t Hyatt have a marketing department?

Now all that’s left is for Starwood Capital to announce their plans for Crillon; I had heard that they would announce their plans and first locations by the end of October, so since there is only two more days left in the month – something should be announced soon.

andrew@alconic-inc.com