Ian Schrager Company And Highgate Join Forces And Enter Into A New Partnership To Expand The PUBLIC Brand Globally

A unique joint venture between hotel visionary Ian Schrager and Highgate, one of the world’s leading hotel management and investment firms, was announced to expand the PUBLIC brand into new markets around the globe.

The partnership represents a deliberate evolution of Schrager’s long-standing business model and philosophy—one rooted in quality over quantity, standing out and delivering an original, one-of-a-kind, curated and elevated experience. Highgate, with a diverse portfolio of hotels and over 80,000 keys across North America, Caribbean, Latin American and Europe, will operate and manage PUBLIC hotels in collaboration with Schrager, while Schrager retains full creative authority, vision, and brand stewardship. It is the perfect complementary partnership where each company leverages what they do best to create something extraordinary in a vastly untapped market.

“I could have chosen anyone in the industry to partner with, but I chose Highgate. They are the smartest, most talented, and most disciplined operators and investors in the business. This partnership allows me to focus entirely on what I do best – concept, product, positioning and experience, while allowing Highgate to do what they do best. To me, it’s a dream team, where 1+1 = 10,” says Schrager.

“Ian is the greatest hotelier of the modern era,” said Mahmood Khimji of Highgate. “He literally invented the lifestyle category. We are extremely excited to be working with him to operate PUBLIC Hotels.”

Highgate’s operating expertise is the ideal platform for PUBLIC’s next phase of growth, enabling expansion while preserving the originality and individuality, that define Schrager’s work.

Over a career spanning more than five decades and nearly 50 hotels between his private label and the EDITION brand, Ian Schrager has completely reinvented the hotel experience as we know it. His groundbreaking concepts and ideas have revolutionized and set the standard for the entire industry from a visual, operational, business model, above market profit margins, marketing and food and beverage perspective. In addition to inventing the boutique/lifestyle hotel, Schrager has consistently rejected convention and the established business model in favor of challenging the status quo and going off in his own direction.

“I reject the notion of yesterday’s innovator becoming today’s establishment. I’m only interested in creating something original, unique and special that defies categorization—something that people have not seen before. In fact, I try to give people something that they did not even know they wanted or believe existed. I don’t believe in traditional demographics—that is an outdated concept, in my opinion. My projects have always appealed to a person’s sensibility, emotions and what and how they feel. If I was not accomplishing this, I would not be in the business.” says Schrager.

In a career filled with successes and firsts, PUBLIC is Schrager’s most important idea to date, in his view. It’s a radical rethinking of luxury that delivers sophisticated design, great service, and a unique experience, at a less expensive price point -- Accessible to anyone and everyone who wants it. It’s not luxury as we traditionally know it, but one that reflects a new, modern definition. Luxury is no longer about things or how much something costs. It is not a business classification, a price point or based on scarcity. It’s more democratic and turns the very notion of luxury on its head. Luxury is now about experiences and how something makes you feel. This is a very important social and cultural shift.

The partnership also signals a broader creative chapter for Schrager, as he continues to assemble world-class collaborators across disciplines who share his commitment to originality and excellence. Later this year, he will announce a new food and beverage collaboration at PUBLIC New York with one of the most cutting-edge and talented figures in modern hospitality—further reinforcing PUBLIC is about lasting experiences, unparalleled quality, that delivers tremendous value. Additionally, PUBLIC West Hollywood, which opens in the Spring will embody, yet again, Schrager’s commitment to pushing the envelope and thinking outside the box. This hotel will be defined by what it doesn’t have rather than what it does have. In addition, each guestroom will not only be for sleeping, resting, dining, entertaining and working, but will also function as its own private screening room – which to Schrager is just perfect for a West Hollywood hotel.

Together, Schrager and Highgate have formed a partnership designed to combine creative vision with best-in-class disciplined and profitable operations. It sets the foundation for PUBLIC’s next chapter, LUXURY FOR ALL on a global scale.