The Eventi New York: Kimpton's Hotel Long Shot |
Under Thomas Mathes' guidance, the luxury hotel in Manhattan is trying to counter the financial crisis with service and style. One morning in December 2009, Thomas Mathes went looking for a place in New York's Chelsea neighborhood where he could plug in his laptop. He visited at least eight Starbucks (SBUX), only to discover that other people with computers had claimed all the electrical outlets. "It was the craziest thing," he says. Mathes wasn't looking to pass idle hours browsing the Web. A month earlier he had been named general manager of the Eventi, a new 292-room luxury hotel run by Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants being built several blocks north on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. The Eventi was scheduled to open in May, but the windows in the building didn't have any glass yet. It was freezing in there. Mathes had a temporary office elsewhere, but he didn't have a key.
