Will now launch new hotel company, SCHRAGER HOTELS, and two new hotel brands and roll them both out in 24-hour international gateway cities around the world
The sale comes as no surprise to those who are familiar with Schrager, whose real passion lies in creating new things, new experiences, new companies and challenging the status quo. "It was a very good financial transaction for me," Schrager said of the sale. "I received an offer that was just too good to refuse. However, it is a bittersweet moment as well. I put 110% into that hotel as I do with all of my projects, but it was time to move on and seek new challenges. As always, I am committed to the idea that the future will always be better than the past. Accordingly, I plan to spend all of my time, energy and focus now on creating two new hotel brands for my new private hotel company, SCHRAGER HOTELS, in addition to continuing my work on EDITION for Marriott."
Schrager, who enjoys a challenge, will start all over again for the 4th time in his career. His goal is to upset the status quo and reinvent the hotel experience, once again. His two new hotel brands include one luxury lifestyle brand and another that is incredibly stylish, less expensive and reasonably priced for both large major city center 1000+ room hotels and smaller hotels. Both brands will offer great value. The first hotel under one of these new brands will open in Chicago in September 2011. It will be a rebirth of one of the city's most famous cultural icons, The Ambassador East, a destination favored by rock legends such as Led Zeppelin, Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols, David Bowie as well as the Rat Pack led by none other than Frank Sinatra. Numerous books have been written about this famed Chicago hotel and it is the perfect project for Schrager to update and reinvent.
Ian Schrager invented the boutique hotel in 1984 with his long time partner and friend Steve Rubell, and went on to become the largest private hotelier in New York. Following 25+ years in the hotel industry, Schrager founded Ian Schrager Company (ISC) in 2005 after selling his previous company Morgans Hotel Group, which is now a publicly traded company. ISC was created to build, develop and market innovative lifestyle residences and hotels, introduce new concepts and reinvent the hotel industry again.
Collaborating with friend and artist Julian Schnabel, the transformation of the fabled Gramercy Park Hotel was a reinvention for the 21st century of the hotel's haute Bohemian heritage. On opening in August 2006, Gramercy Park Hotel made its stamp as the most unorthodox and wildly eccentric property in the city. With this hotel, Schrager also introduced to the world a rare and new opportunity to experience museum-quality art by 20th century masters such as Warhol, Twombly, Basquiat, Schnabel, Hirst, Prince, Botero and many more in an intimate, relaxed and personal environment. This groundbreaking and important idea allowed a broad spectrum of people to experience art in a way that was previously only available to a select few. Gramercy Park Hotel took the pretension out of art viewing and made it democratic.
Ian Schrager also recently launched new hotel brand EDITION, working with hotel giant Marriott International as the brand's Creative Director. The first hotel, The Waikiki EDITION, opened in October to rave reviews and will soon be followed by properties in Istanbul, Barcelona, Mexico City, Miami, Bangkok and London among others. The January 2011 issue of Travel + Leisure says of The Waikiki EDITION, "It has Schrager's signature sparkle, the impossible-to-pinpoint X factor that has been his genius since Studio 54 and that has always distinguished the original boutique hotels from the hordes of derivative wannabes."