Ian Schrager is Out at Gramercy Park But Moving Ahead with Two New Hotel Brands
It came as no surprise yesterday when Ian Schrager officially announced his departure from The Gramercy Park Hotel, his first hotel after leaving his previous hotel company, Morgans Hotel Group, to create his own hotel company, Schrager Hotels. He is now working on not one, but two new hotel brands.
That's because he had been hearing that Schrager was looking to get out of GPH last week and in October, USA Today had already dished on Schrager's future hotel plans. So now that it's all official and what not, we're curious as to what these new Schrager brands are going to be like.
We know that the first one will open inside the old Ambassador East Hotel in Chicago. This is expected to be a "rebirth of one of the city's most famous cultural icons." Schrager told us earlier this year that hotel will be a "very stylish, simple, modern classic hotel that is really accessible to everybody," meaning it should be rather affordable. The hotel should reopen now in September 2011. Sweet!
However, the second brand is still very much under wraps.
In a press release yesterday, it only noted that the other will be a luxury lifestyle brand but that it too will also offer "great value." Both brands will be rolled out in international gateway cities like New York, LA, Miami, London, Paris, Barcelona, Istanbul, Mexico City, Rio de Janiero and even expressed desire to open in China, India and South America.
This is some pretty big game Schrager is talking and it's obvious he is looking at some sort of large-scale franchise operation.
We hate to say it, but he better get moving fast. We can totally see Virgin Hotels getting to all of this before Schrager does.
Got any scoop on Schrager Hotels, what the two brands are like and where they will open next? Let us know Also, be honest--what do you think of that logo? Dish in comments below!!
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