Marriott, Schrager Team Up For Boutique Brand

Marriott International today announced a partnership with boutique hotelier Ian Schrager to develop a new brand with as a goal of at least 100 hotels, including five firm development deals the partners expect to have in place by the end of this year.

The brand, to be created from a mix of new construction, conversions and renovations, will consist of hotels with about 150 to 200 rooms, Marriott chairman and CEO J.W. Marriott Jr. said in a prepared statement. The new brand will allow Marriott "to use our global platform and ability to execute to create something completely new, different and original—the first truly global branded boutique lifestyle hotel on a large scale."

Marriott and Schrager have listed cities in North America, including Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego and San Francisco, and several gateway cities in South America, Europe and Asia as initial markets to explore for the brand.

Schrager, who created Studio 54 and The Palladium in the 1970s alongside the late Steve Rubell, also was behind such early forms of the boutique concept as Morgans Hotel, Royalton Hotel and Paramount Hotel. Schrager left Morgans Hotel Group in 2005 to found his own company that develops hotel, residential and mixed-use projects.