Boston is hot right now and surprisingly, this bit of news has nothing to do with the newly crowned NBA Champs, The Celtics.
Boston is becoming a little hotbed of boutique hotel activity and the latest to join the game is the Morgans Hotel Group. The super trendy hotel group had decided to restore the old Ames Building and rename it The Ames Hotel.
The Ames building is a historic building in downtown Boston that first began construction in the late 1880s. Word on the street is the building was so perfect for a boutique hotel that Ian Schrager (after he left Morgans) tried to snatch up the property before the developers had already done so.
We're already anxiously awaiting the Mondrian South Beach (which should have opened in May but now has been moved to December 2008) and now we have one more thing to salivate over: the 4,000-square-foot Agua Spa.
While an Agua already exists at fellow Miami hotel Delano, this one will up the ante with new signature treatments, like the "Heavenly Hangover" package and the "Travelers Retreat," as well as an exclusive skincare line by Sjal and separate Agua product line by Korres.
Despite a serious scandal last summer which found his 23-year-old girlfriend dead in his condo in Las Vegas and the inevitable step-down from Morgans Hotel Group, life is still good for Ed Scheetz.
How good? He was able to buy a new apartment in Soho, a penthouse, for $10 million. The Observer reports:
Old listings show that the place has a total of 6,189 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, beamed 13-foot ceilings, a wine cooler, a steam room and a Jacuzzi tub. There's also space for a large Jacuzzi tub on the roof terrace.
So while his tastes for high design might remain, let's hope his tastes for high living has been scaled back.
Meanwhile, another tipster let us know that Scheetz has not changed/updated his profile info on the ASmallWorld.net, "a private online community" aka networking site. He's still listed himself as the CEO of Morgans and has a picture (above) of him in one of the hotels. Oops.
Dedicated readers of HotelChatter know that they will never find us at the Rehab pool parties that take place every Sunday at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.
It probably all stems from this review where a guest saw people engaging in "sex acts" by the pool. That and the copious amounts of video and photos we've seen. It makes the Jersey Shore look tame!
So when we got this press release on the Rehab Las Vegas website (a microsite of the Hard Rock's site) we didn't really care. Then we looked closer and realized that even if you can't physically get to Rehab you can still participate in all the trashy shenanigans.Keep on reading for the full release
The eagerly awaited Mondrian South Beach--we had a tour of the unfinished version back in November 2007, and we've been enthusiastically waiting for the real opening--is set to open fully soon.
In the meantime, HotelChatter tipster Michael told us about a bunch of lobby and sample guest bedroom pictures available from designer Marcel Wanders online and we just had to show you. It really does look something special.
Starting in the lobby, there's a pretty spectacular spiral staircase, as pictured above. Move into the guest rooms and you can't miss the unique design features that really make it look different to other hotels.
We love the big sweeping spaces of the bedroom and if you take a look at the same room from the other angle, we're pretty excited by its funky bath tub too.
There's no official opening date being publicized soon and no online reservations open yet, but May or June are looking likely.
[UPDATE: The hotel is set to open in December 2008 for the annual Art Basel Art Fair.]
Daylight Savings told us to spring ahead and in May that's what Morgans Hotel will be doing. The Manhattan hotel will be closing temporarily on May 18, 2008, for a $9 million modern up-do of its lobby and guest rooms, including the dreamy private penthouse.
The 113-room Madison Avenue hotel is the iconic property that started it all with French designer Andree Putman for Morgans Hotel Group twenty years ago. It was then Putman created the Morgans' famed "home away from home" sensation in the hotel industry, and this year she'll be working her magic again to give the property another fresh new look and feel in keeping with her original concept.
Don't fret for a second if you've booked yourself at the the hotel during the May-August months. All guests will be offered alternative stays at either the midtown Royalton or the Hudson, just blocks from Central Park. And the hotel's wildly popular Asia de Cuba restaurant will remain open throughout the renovations. The hotel plans to re-open in September.
Speaking of the Royalton, the place unveiled its new look last fall to pretty tepid reviews. Let's hope the iconic Morgans property doesn't suffer a similar fate.
Down by the Hipster reports that New York's Hudson Hotel will start hosting a regular Monday night party which is expected to be "very exclusive, very media and arts centric."
But apparently Manhattan is flooded with Monday night parties (Butter, Johnny Utah's, Upstairs and Star Lounge) so who knows how the Hudson's party will fare?
Although we did find this little tidbit from a commenter kinda funny:
there is no way that hudson hotel party is gonna work......place sucks and is no fun.....it's a hotel bar!!!
Hello, hotel bars are like all the rage now. What year are you living in? 2000? As if! (jk).
Another commenter has the Hudson's back, calling it OG for having a bouncer there three years ago with fingerless gloves. Nice. We think the party might survive at least for a few weeks. Remember, the Hudson Hotel does have Ian Schrager DNA.
A hotel worker at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco was arrested yesterday morning on suspicion of sexually assaulting a female hotel guest. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Police arrested Christian Rojas at the lobby of the hotel on Geary Street at 5 a.m. Officials said Rojas had used a key card assigned to him to enter the room, assaulted the victim, 39, and then left.
Suddenly, those women-only floors found in India with security guards seem like a really good idea.
In other news, disgraced ex-CEO Ed Scheetz tried to offer hush money to the family of the young girl who died in his Las Vegas apartment last summer.
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