Pritzker and Pomeranc families unite hotel businesses

Arrangement combines star power of Chicago, New York entities and boutique, luxury accommodations

October 04, 2011|By Julie Wernau, Tribune reporter

Monday's announcement that John Pritzker of Chicago's Pritzker family and New York's Pomeranc family have united their hotel businesses brings together the star power of two families that have been in the industry since the 1950s.

The Pomerancs got their start in airport hotels and expanded into luxury hotels in the 1990s, and the names Pritzker and Hyatt are nearly synonymous.

But this generation of hotel magnates eschews the conventional hotel model for the quirky, risky and unconventional. The new company, tentatively called JT Hospitality, combines 33 boutique hotels operated by Pritzker's Joie de Vivre Hotels with 12 luxury hotels operated by the Pomeranc family's Thompson Hotels.

Each will retain a 50 percent stake in the venture, which they expect will generate annual revenue of about $500 million.

On Monday, San Francisco-based John Pritzker, son of late Hyatt Hotels Corp. founder Jay Pritzker, discussed his vision for the new company.

Why hotels? Does the hotel business run in your veins?

I grew up at Hyatt. My brother used to describe me as the Pritzker who could actually check somebody into a hotel. There isn't a job I haven't had. It's what I love. I tried to get away from it, and kind of like a stray dog found my way back home.

Many of the country's larger hotel chains have added touches to give their properties a boutique hotel feel. How does a boutique or luxury hotel owner survive?

The large chains — Hyatt, Marriott, Starwood — are calling these hotels "boutiquey" or "lifestyle" hotels. Obviously, they're following what they believe to be a popular thing, something their guests are clamoring for. But it's hard for a Hyatt or Marriott to do a boutiquey hotel, because they're still a big-box system whose managers are working for the big-box system.

I remember at the Hyatt (Regency) O'Hare there was a cook who had worked for another hotel chain, and he said the problem with it was that they operate on manuals. He said: "When we were making a hollandaise, we took out the appropriate card and used the recipe on the card. So, it wasn't my hollandaise."

As the world becomes more "BlackBerry-ized" if you will, people want to be recognized. I think what we represent is the ability to walk into a lobby, without there being 500 conventiongoers, and have someone look at you and say: "Hi. Welcome back."

If Thompson Hotels and Joie de Vivre Hospitality were being introduced to a stranger, how would you describe them?

It's like two people who met at a party and said, "Hey, I want to hang out with you." This feels like two families getting together, not two faceless corporations. I go to New York and hang out with these guys all the time. Thompson's ethos is the edgy, hip L.A./Manhattan feel, and ours is more of an earthy California feel. I think it's important that we each hold on to our personalities.

I brought Jason (Pomeranc), Stephen (Brandman) and the other brothers to Carmel Valley Ranch (the Carmel, Calif., boutique hotel owned by Pritzker's Joie de Vivre) where there's this extensive beekeeping facility. Jason is this hip, bicoastal guy who hangs out with the stars, and there he is in a beekeeping suit with 60,000 bees around him. It was mesmerizing.

Then we flew down to L.A. and we went to the Hollywood Roosevelt (an opulent Thompson hotel on Hollywood Boulevard) where he took two 1930s bowling alleys and two game chests and installed what he calls a "games mistress," and you can bowl and drink and she'll set up Monopoly. We're going to do something a little quirky.

Can you share your vision for JT Hospitality?

It's really more of the same on a larger scale. We think we can expand.

We want to create hotels that reflect where they sit. If you go to Miami or Seattle or Toronto, and you don't get the sense when you're in those hotels that you're in that city, that's a big mistake.

We did a model hotel room for Carmel Valley Ranch. I took my 25-year-old son into the room, and he put the shades down and looked around. He said, "With the shades down, this room could be in Dallas." As a result, we totally scrapped the model room. Now, Carmel Valley Ranch reflects Carmel.

We have a hotel in Berkeley (Calif.) right by the campus. Between the beds is a lamp created from a converted bong. All you can do is smile. It was perfect.

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