NEW YORK—After a dozen years in operation, New York-based Amsterdam Hospitality has been moving the needle of its portfolio of three-star properties here in the Big Apple, strategically updating and upgrading a selection of them to compete at the four-star level. Its most notable recent “refresh” is the iconic Empire Hotel, a fixture on the New York hotel scene since the 1890s. The property is pinpointed easily at its Lincoln Center area location on West 63 Street by the huge red neon sign perched 13 stories up on its rooftop, where the “electrical wonder”—which was first illuminated in 1923—now casts a glow over the newly installed pool-deck. Amsterdam Hospitality has a three-prong business that targets lodging, apartment complexes and commercial buildings, but COO George Dfouni sees the primary concentration being hotels, a direction that has evolved over the years since the company was founded in 1996. “We started with the Ameritania hotel and then we expanded. We had a couple of other buildings that we renovated into hotels,” he said. “For three to four years we had a pretty good run with three-star properties and then we decided to venture out. We decided to upgrade a couple of the properties to four-star level to see if we could compete in that market.” In addition to the Empire Hotel, Amsterdam Hospitality has several other hotels in New York, including the Ameritania (220 rooms), Amsterdam Court (135 rooms), Astor on the Park (112 rooms), Bentley (197 rooms), Modern (34 rooms) and The Marcel at Gramercy (134 rooms). The Marcel and The Bentley have been repositioned to four-star hotels. Amsterdam Hospitality also has two hotels coming on line in downtown Los Angeles next April, The Clark and an as-yet-unnamed property. Amsterdam also is in joint ventures with real estate development company the Chetrit Group, LLC on The Blake, a 350-room hotel in Charlotte, NC, and a 250-room resort hotel in Asbury Park, NJ, The Berkeley Oceanfront. In late 2006, Amsterdam Hospitality did a 50-50 partnership on the Empire Hotel with Chetrit Group, which several years earlier had purchased the property from Ian Schrager with the former intent of converting the building into 125 condominium apartments. The partnership invested more than $50 million into the hotel’s gut renovation, completely revamping some 420 rooms and suites and adding contemporary décor and design, upgrading the lobby/lobby bar to a more social venue, installing a spa and fitness center and adding a bi-level pool deck that features a plunge pool, sun beds, private cabanas and views of the city. A second-floor steakhouse and a rooftop restaurant by China Grill Management also are in the works. A P.J. Clarke’s restaurant occupies leased space on the ground level. “Some of the rooms were very small, so we combined them to make them larger,” said Dfouni. “And now all of the furniture in the hotel is custom made.” Interior design team Goodman Charlton created the look for the guestrooms, suites and public areas, using a palette of cream, caramel, coffee and ochre accented by metalwork in bronze and copper. At press time, Dfouni said occupancy at the Empire Hotel was running at 92%, and just prior to the drop off in the Wall Street markets and the economic trickle down, RevPAR was at $392. The COO considers the hotel’s competitive set to be the nearby Le Parker Meridien and Essex House and, at the lower end, the Hudson Hotel. In terms of location only, the property competes with the five-star Mandarin Oriental. Prior to the turmoil in the stock market, Dfouni said the property was getting a lot of corporate business. “We also get a lot of entertainment business since ABC television studios are right around the corner. We also get a lot of Fox-TV studio executives as well,” he said. As might be expected, the property gets a good deal of business from its proximity to cultural venue Lincoln Center, where plays, concerts, operas and other stagings draw a wide variety of attendees. “We’re starting to do packages with them now, and for the 50th anniversary of Lincoln Center in a couple of months, we’ll be doing even more than what we are doing now,” said Dfouni. Dfouni acknowledged that “since the market mess, international business has slowed down as well as the corporate business.” Those markets made up approximately 50% and 30%, respectively, of the hotel’s business mix. “People have a perception that if you [own/manage] hotel rooms in New York you have an easy sell; it’s a home run. Yes, on certain days you feel you can get anything you want for the price, but it’s all about building relationships,” said Dfouni. “And that’s in good times and in bad times.” The COO said Amsterdam Hospitality has built up its ties with corporate clientele and travel managers, which is coming in handy during this uncertain economic time. “We’ve been in this market for some time, so maybe it’s a little easier for us than some others,” noted Dfouni. Dfouni did point out that one of the reasons it might be easier is that Amsterdam Hospitality owns its properties. “Once you own the property and you manage it…decision-making is one, two, three. There’s no red tape. We do what we want to make it work. Our ultimate goal is to meet the guest expectation and beat out the competition,” he said, adding, “Whatever it takes, we’re going to do.”
