Schrager to Buy New York Site as ‘Public’ Boutique Hotel Opens in Chicago | Bloomberg

Ian Schrager, the pioneer of the boutique hotel concept, agreed to buy a development site in New York City as he prepares to open his first property under the Public brand tomorrow in Chicago.

His company, Ian Schrager Co., also is close to completing a second Manhattan deal as part of a plan to develop trendy, less-expensive properties in “gateway” cities, Schrager said in an Oct. 7 interview. He declined to give details of the plots or say how much he’s paying for them.

Ian Schrager Co. plans to build and revamp properties in metropolitan areas including Los Angeles and Paris. Last week, it won a 76 million-pound ($119 million) bid for a Crowne Plaza hotel in London that likely will be the next Public location, Schrager said. The company bought the property now known as Public Chicago in the city’s Gold Coast section for about $25 million and spent about the same amount to renovate it, he said.

“We bought it at the bottom of the market when everything was in the garbage bin,” Schrager said by telephone from New York. “The building had great bones. It’s an iconic landmark. It might be Chicago’s Plaza Hotel.”

Schrager’s company plans to spend $250 million to develop 10 to 15 locations in the next five years.

The hotelier’s expansion plans come as the lodging industry improves. Occupancies in the top 25 U.S. markets climbed to 68 percent this year through August from 65 percent in the same period last year, according to Smith Travel Research Inc. of Hendersonville, Tennessee.