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Stephen Brandman at the 2007 Grammy Awards
By: Stephen Brandman
Stephen Brandman goes to the 2007 Grammy Awards with a quartet of Australian fashion designers (photo). Thompson Hotels is for taste-makers, the 25 to 60 year olds, the lifestyle followers who want to live life to the fullest.
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The difference between Thompson Hotels and its competitors is that the others roll out the red carpet for celebrities. We treat regular people as rock stars and rock stars as regular people and as a result we are crammed with big names. There you go.
We have ten hotels right now, with 6 Columbus, New York, opening April 16th. We are maximizing the number of experience venues, and the people with whom we associate.
Our new magazine is called 'Room 100', the current issue has Adrian Brody on the cover and inside it features such people as Justin Chambers, Olivia Wilde, Theodora Richards (daughter of Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards) and Lydia Hearst Shaw (daughter of kidnap victim Patty Hearst and heir to that media empire). Why Room 100? Well, that is what we call the fantastic good-time room next to the Tropicana club at the Hollywood Roosevelt in Los Angeles - it is the opposite of George Orwell's Room 101 torture room in his book 1984. We will have 'Room 100' invitation-only lounges in all our luxury hotels.
Room 100 is stuffed full of advertising names of the caliber of Tiffany and Valentino. Thompson Hotels works with the best - the magazine is produced by Black Book, the New York-based arbiter of modern taste.
Yes, I am a New Yorker, but I am at home on the west coast too. Our 12-minute movie, directed by Mark Webb and starring Enrique Murciano and Olivia Wilde, is called 'LA Suite'. It is a grown-up version of Eloise, about a 21-year old who lives in a hotel. It has been shown round all the festivals.
An opening of the senses captures the imagination. I use designers like Ilan Weisbrod, Studio GAIA, who did W Mexico City (Thompson Washington DC, opening this October), Richardson Sadeki (New York TriBeCa, opening 2008), Javier Mariscal of Studio Mariscal (Toronto, opening 2009), and the memorable restaurant designer Dodd Mitchell (both Los Angeles hotels plus New York's Thompson Lower East Side). At our first hotel, 60 Thompson, New York, interiors are by Thomas
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O’Brien of Aero Studios, which did Armani's New York flagship store, and the lighting is Johnson Schwinghammer. We go for ultimate taste: that hotel's restaurant, Kittichai, run by its Australian-Thai namesake Ian Pongtawat Chalermkittichai, and you find Dean & DeLuca foods in the minibar.
Travel makes me increasingly aware of what today's internationalists want. Within six years Thompson Hotels has established leading presence in California and New York. I am serious about somewhere nice on a Mexican beach, and I have London, Paris, and Beijing and Shanghai, on my agenda. I have two more contracts on my desk and there are many more in the pipeline. Each will be unique, with a shared feel-great ambience. Luxury nomads will find beds that are made exclusively for us, Sferra Bed Linens, Fresh toiletries, good food and a truly memorable bar, and, everywhere, beautiful people. Having come through the ranks of big corporate hotel companies and scrutinized such high-end brands as Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton I have taken their best and discarded things that did not work. At the heart of the operation Thompson Hotels is actually very traditional (my fabulous employees do not call me Stephen - at least not to my face).
THE AUTHORStephen Brandman is co-owner of Thompson Hotels - his partners are real-estate siblings Jason, Larry and Mike Pomeranc. Following graduation from Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration he joined InterContinental Hotels, after which he discarded socks and ties (apart from Grammy and similar events) to set up 60 Thompson, New York. This quickly became the catalyst for the launch of Thompson Hotels. Stephen Brandman lives mainly in New York and, as a member of AVION Private Jet Club, organized by agent-to-the-stars Gary Mansour, he crosses the USA in comfort, traveling with other luxury nomads. Stephen Brandman is the newest member of the advisory board of Kiwi Collection Inc. www.thompsonhotels.com
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