Barry Sternlicht (W Hotels, Sheraton, St. Regis, Westin = Starwood) is outdoing himself again. In 2008 he'll launch the first hotel of his new "1" Hotels and Residences chain, in Seattle at Second and Pine Streets. "1" will be categorized as "eco-luxury", not "eco-ultra-luxury," though it also aims to compete with St. Regis and Four Seasons. The typical hotel will offer ~250 rooms and locations will immediately follow in Mammoth Mountain, California, Scottsdale, Arizona, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and Paris. A staggered following is slated for NYC and L.A. Most impressively, "1s" won't just be built green; they will operate green too. According to Hotel Law Blog, 15 "1" hotels will be under construction before October 2008. According to Sternlicht, all will be marketing to "the guilt-conscious yuppie."
It's undecided whether we will ever be able to refer to the brand as 1, not "1."
Thursday, May 3, 2007
"1": The First Luxury Eco-friendly Global Hotel Brand
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
L.A.'s Tipping Point?
In our three minutes of free time we occasionally look into metropolitan pipelines in an effort to assess what percentage of projects in any given city are planning on going green. L.A. has more than 9,000 units in its residential for-sale 2007-2010 pipeline, and seventy five(!) projects (in greater L.A., which might include San Diego soon,) are slated for green. That's a tipping point by our standards. And, like all good tipping points, it's probably 70% marketing-driven, 30% policy-driven.
The brand builders: "(Biscuit Company Lofts' LEED status) has marketing cachet more than anything else." The political: "A Council motion introduced in January would raise those standards, requiring that all city construction meet LEED Silver levels." Read more...
