Amar Lalvani, 49, president and creative director of Hyatt and the man who turned Standard Hotels into a huge global brand, believes his career has been about taking risks and embracing uncertainty. Masu.
In my early twenties, a business trip to Thailand led to several years in Asia. Although he was initially reluctant to work abroad for such an extended period of time, the move paid off in a big way. Later in his career, he went through a nasty parting with a major hotel group, but agreed to return on the condition that he could buy the company.
“The important thing is to be bold, to be brave, to take risks,” he said of such critical junctures.
Lalvani began his career working for real estate mogul Barry Sternlicht at Starwood Capital Group, a multi-billion real estate investment company specializing in hotels.
In 1998, at the age of 24 and 10 days into his business trip to Asia, he received a call from one of Starwood's partners asking him to move to Thailand indefinitely to determine whether Starwood should invest in the region. I was told that I needed to stay there. In the midst of a financial crisis.
He spent about two years overseas, acting as Starwood's sole field representative and meeting with people who would become major investors in future projects.
He managed Starwood's various existing properties and laid the groundwork with the Thai government to help Starwood launch major properties such as Le Méridien and the St. Regis over the next decade.
“Those were formative years for me to understand what I was doing and set the stage for my career,” he told NY Next.
After returning from Thailand in 2000, he earned an MBA from Harvard University and worked in real estate development at Blackstone and then Starwood's W Hotels.
In 2010, while working with W, he partnered with hotelier Andre Barras to expand his hospitality empire. At the time, they included The Mercer in Manhattan, the Chiltern Firehouse in London, Sunset Beach in the Hamptons, the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood, and the Standard Hotel. Located in WeHo, Downtown Los Angeles, Miami, and New York's Meatpacking District.
But by 2012, Lavrani was tired of managing the company's operations and finances while Balazs focused on the creative side of the business. He had a vision of himself that he wanted to do and quit.
The breakup was nasty, but it didn't last long.
“About half a year later, [Balazs] He asked me to have dinner with him… and he said, do you want to go back to the board and run the company? ” Lalvani said.
He agreed to return only if Mr. Barrazuz agreed to “do things differently” or let Mr. Lalvani buy the company.
Balazs chose the latter.
“For his willpower, for his personality, for his charisma, for his age…unless I can get the money to buy the company, he will always be the boss,” Lalvani said. “So I did it.”
(Information about how much Mr. Lalvani raised and spent on the deal has not been made public, but he became Standard's largest shareholder in 2013.)
Lalvani said it was a “challenge” to take over the brand from its beloved founder and take on a more creative role than before, but believes it's the only way to grow the business.
Since then, he has opened 10 more Standard hotels, including hotels in Singapore and the Maldives. Dozens more are in development.
Mr. Lalvani sought to expand Standard's footprint in 2014 by investing in the small Bunkhouse Hotel Group, which operates a small number of properties in Texas, California and Mexico City.
Since then, Mr. Lalvani has taken the risk of developing what he calls “secondary cities,” smaller markets like Louisville, Kentucky, and Lisbon, Portugal. These cities are increasingly popular with low-key tourists, often ignored by major hotel chains. destination.
“I’ve seen this trend,” he said.
In October, Hyatt, which owns 24 hotel brands from Andaz to Dream, acquired all of Lavrani's brands, including Bunkhouse and The Standard, for $355 million.
As part of the deal, Lavrani will remain president and creative director of all Hyatt brands and will continue to oversee the brands he already runs.
As for what's next, Lalvani said he's embracing the present. In short, he said, he's celebrating the launch of his new Soho hotel, The Manor, a stylish passion project that eliminates traditional amenities such as TVs and wall art in every room.
“It's that simple,” he said. “We want people to love our hotel.”
This article is part of a new editorial series called NYNext, which focuses on innovation across various industries in New York City and the people leading the way.
