Ian Schrager Confirms Sale of His Interests in Gramercy Park Hotel Will Close on Thursday

NEW YORK, Dec. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Ian Schrager, world-renowned hospitality legend, style icon and inventor of the boutique hotel, confirmed today that the sale of his interests in Gramercy Park Hotel is scheduled to close on Thursday.

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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.

Additionally, Schrager intends to roll out his two new brands in multiple 24-hour international gateway cities such as, New York, Los Angeles and Southern California, Miami and Southern Florida, London, Paris, Barcelona, Istanbul, Mexico City, Rio De Janiero, and other cities in Europe, Asia, China, India and South America.

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."

ABOUT SCHRAGER HOTELS

Ian Schrager builds, develops and markets innovative lifestyle residences and hotels, introducing new concepts and reinventing industry standards. The boutique hotel was invented in 1984 by visionary Ian Schrager and his longtime partner and friend Steve Rubell.  His formative 25+ year career revolutionized and impacted both nightlife (Studio 54 and Palladium) and hospitality (Morgans, Royalton, Paramount, Hudson, Mondrian, Delano, Shore Club, Clift, St. Martin's Lane, Sanderson and Gramercy Park Hotel).  He was the largest private hotelier in New York until he sold his company.   Schrager's recent projects include the transformation of the fabled Gramercy Park Hotel in New York, residential projects 50 Gramercy Park North in collaboration with world-renowned architect John Pawson, and 40 Bond in collaboration with Pritzker Prize winning architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron.  He is now, for the fourth time in his career, starting all over again by launching a new hotel company, SCHRAGER HOTELS.  This new company will include two new hotel brands, one luxury lifestyle brand and one that will be reasonably priced.   Both new brands will be rolled out in 24 international gateway cities around the world with the first opening in Chicago in 2011. www.ianschragercompany.com

SOURCE SCHRAGER HOTELS