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Ian Schrager Wants Back In The Hotel Game in a Major Way

October 27, 2010 at 11:23 AM | by | Comments (0)

We've always had a sneaking suspicion that master hotelier Ian Schrager wouldn't be totally satisfied with just creating the Edition Hotels brand for Marriott and nothing else, so when he announced a new hotel in Chicago we thought, "Aahhh...that's more like it."

But after that buzz wore off, we wondered if Ian would ever put together another proper hotel brand or collection like he did with Morgans Hotel Group. As it turns out, Barb De Lollis at USA Today has discovered that yes, he will.

Schrager told De Lollis that he wants to start another hotel company and that he won't be limiting himself to just one brand.

Now, Schrager says, he wants to get back in the game in a bigger way, especially since he's seen his boutique-hotel concept mimicked widely in the last five years. His goal? Roll out "a couple of new brands" that he has not yet named - "a high-end brand and a low-end brand, and sometimes in the middle."

Schrager is looking to branch out to other predictable hot cities like London, New York, Miami and even Las Vegas (we know someone who'd like that!). But of course, these brand aspirations are really no more than pipe dreams right now.

Schrager has to focus on opening the Ambassador East Hotel in Chicago first. De Lollis reports that will happen sometime in 2012 and rates will start around $225 a night.

Schrager is also slowing his roll with these brands because of the still-tough economy. He told De Lollis he will look for more properties like the Ambassador East which was downtrodden and hasn't functioned very well in a long time but not many of these properties are up for sale. Add in the difficulties these days of obtaining construction financing and the new Schrager brands are still a ways off.

In short, we can definitely expect more from Schrager in the coming years, the emphasis here is on years. On the bright side, another reason to look forward to more new hotels from Ian Schrager? Free WiFi. Schrager said charging guests for WiFi is "short-sighted." Finally, someone's on our side!

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